Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: To identify areas of commonality between the health profession curriculums on the University of Arizona campus, encompassing nursing, pharmacy, medicine, and public health. Methods: This descriptive, cross sectional study used a set of predetermined interprofessional education (IPE) topics including communication, professional ethics, quality assurance and patient safety, evidence based medicine, and public health to compare the core curricula of the colleges. Syllabi for each class were analyzed to determine which, if any, of the topics mentioned previously were covered, and if needed professors were contacted for clarification purposes on their lectures. Main Results: Each of the health professional colleges covers all 5 of the interprofessional topics studied. Evidence based medicine was the most covered IPE topic with 233.5 hours followed by communication (153.5 hours), public health (133.75 hours), quality assurance and patient safety (106.5 hours), and professional ethics (59 hours). Conclusions: The University of Arizona Health Sciences Campus is capable of developing an interprofessional curriculum based on the shared aims amongst the colleges. Although we were unable to identify a specific time slot that could be used to teach IPE curricula, we are able to recommend that an IPE course be implemented in the first professional year for all the colleges as this was the time in which all the colleges spent the most time teaching IPE topics.

The aim of this thesis was to examine the contribution of nurses to interprofessional collaboration (IPC) in the operating room (OR) guided by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Patient Care Practice (IECPCP) framework. First, a secondary analysis of interviews with 19 registered nurses was conducted. Twenty emergent themes were identified. The most prevalent of the four dimensions (internalization; shared goals and vision; governance; and formalization) consisted of the internalization dimension relating to human interaction and sense of belonging within the interprofessional team. A scoping review then identified 20 studies evaluating four interventions (briefings, checklists, team training, and debriefings) used to improve IPC in the OR. Despite weak study designs, these interventions showed improvements in communication, teamwork, and safety outcomes. OR nurses contribute mainly through interactional processes and they require organizational support to foster their efforts in IPC. Nurse are involved in all IPC interventions and their contribution is important to support IPC in the OR.

Background: Interprofessional Education (IPE) can improve teamwork among future healthcare professionals, but the academic structural environment can be a barrier to its implementation. Methods and Results: Students from seven professional programs (athletic training. exercise science, nursing, nutrition, public health, social work, and speech-language pathology) participated in a two-part IPE program consisting of: a web-based education module and an in-person interactive workshop. Students were administered a deidentified pre/post survey to assess changes in their knowledge and attitudes toward IPE. A total of 54 students participated in both components with 46 students completing both surveys. After participating in the IPE program, significantly more students reported changes in 10 of the 18 items on the survey, particularly differentiating the roles of each profession and the benefits of interprofessional collaboration in their future careers. Conclusion: This program increased students’ understanding of the roles of different health professions. Implementing an IPE program is beneficial for enhancing student knowledge and changing attitudes toward IPE.

The prevailing approach to managing persons with criminal histories involves community supervision professionals like probation and parole officers partnering with other mental health providers to address clients’ needs. The relationships between individual professionals are seldom researched, though, and the current study aims to address this deficit in the empirical literature. This study utilized interviews about professionals’ perceptions of their work experiences, analyzed open-endedly to identify major themes. Mental health providers’ themes included appreciation and process of collaboration, individual characteristics and roles, characteristics of collaboration, elements of interprofessional relationships, and involvement of the courts. Community supervision professionals discussed issues pertaining to appreciation and process of collaboration, individual characteristics and roles, when conflict occurs, and the lack of basic knowledge about other professionals. Second, these partnerships were examined in light of interprofessional healthcare competencies. Themes identified here resembled healthcare values and ethics competencies and roles and responsibilities competencies; healthcare competencies regarding interprofessional communication and teamwork showed partial congruence with the current themes. Overall, interprofessional collaboration is valued. This research highlights the strengths of this type of interprofessional collaboration and offers suggestions for improving the efficacy of collaboration.

No / The increasing emphasis of interprofessional working (IPW) and learning (IPL) encourages healthcare professionals to be educated together. However, is the language and understanding clear and consistent across health care? ResearchQuestions: Is there a sound evidence base underpinning IPL/IPW? Do healthcare professionals and workforce arrangements support across professional working? Methodology: To answer these questions a detailed review was carried out investigating UK policy and educational developments in relation to international interprofessional research.Data Sources: Healthcare documents in relation to IPL from the UK Department of Health; World Health Organization; themes from international and European IPL networks/conferences, international healthcare journal article search (Metalib); UK Healthcare Commission documents; and UK healthcare statistics and data. Results:The definition of IPL and the associated IPL agenda within health is broad, which enables flexibility and creativity. However, this may also contribute to the weak evidence base which demonstrates the effectiveness of IPL.Conclusion: To focus the agenda on developing effective healthcare teams within an IPL framework would enable common understanding, language and evaluation processes.

Rationale: Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) occurs when “multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, careers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care” (WHO, 2010, p. 13). Successful discharge planning for patients from hospitals is dependent upon IPC (Shepperd et al., 2004). The purpose of this study is to identify and examine barriers or facilitators to IPC as they pertain to discharge planning on a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: Case study design using an online survey, participant observation and semi-structured interviews for data collection. Healthcare workers on a NICU at a large Canadian teaching hospital were surveyed to determine their views on the discharge planning process, leadership and IPC. Participant observations took place during the weekly IPC rounds to observe the healthcare workers when discussing discharge plans and to identify key informants for interviews. Based on these observations, 10 health care workers were selected to interview to gain a more in depth understanding of IPC in the discharge planning. Data collection occurred from December 2010 to February 2011. Results: Survey results (n=66) indicate that the majority of healthcare workers on the NICU support IPC. However, the interview data demonstrated that problems arose during an emergency discharge. An emergency discharge occurs when an existing patient on the NICU needs to be discharged to another unit in order to provide a bed for a new admission. The lack of effective communication, role clarity issues, and a need for mutual respect act as barriers to the full participation of all members of the interprofessional team in an emergency discharge. Conclusions: Defining the context is important; IPC works well in a non-emergency situation on the NICU. The level of involvement of the healthcare workers in IPC varies due to previous experience working on interprofessional teams (IPT). The medical lead is responsible for making the decision about a discharge. However, what has been identified as important is an IPC leader who is responsible for ensuring that all information from the IPT members is accessible to inform the medical lead. / UOIT

Collaboration is neither the ethos, nor the experience, of most professionals in health care. Nevertheless, the concept of collaboration has become increasingly popular in recent years, promising to enhance all aspects of work, academic, and political life. And while collaboration is a significant and complex phenomenon, it has not been clearly understood for its impact on health care professionals and their work, or for the factors that influence its success or failure. The purpose of the study was to explore the meaning of collaboration, as conveyed by the lived experience of health care professionals, as well as the interpersonal and interactional determinants and their impact on the outcomes of their collaboration. The conceptual paradigm of phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenological methods guided the research. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 health care professionals engaged in interprofessional practice in a novel community-based geriatric care program. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Ricoeur’s procedural steps were used to analyze the transcripts. Acquiring the ‘real world’ experiences of health care professionals enabled the emergence of six themes: engaging in collective thinking and action to produce best outcomes and optimize clients’ health; responding to collaboration for self and other members as a continued work in progress; experiencing the personal and professional rewards as markers of success with collaboration; existing challenges create barriers that impede collaboration; experiencing the interactional dynamics of collaboration and their influences requires the interpersonal attributes of quality communication, openness, trust, and respect; and forming a common vision is necessary for collaboration but difficult to achieve. The findings of this study suggest that collaboration is a genuinely experiential phenomenon: it is a human process that requires leadership on the part of all health care professionals to negotiate and agree upon the processes that will enhance their relationships and are necessary for collaboration to unfold. This study produced a number of recommendations that can be offered to multiple stakeholders in the geriatric care setting, as well as extended to those in the other domains of health care.

No description available.

Collaboration is neither the ethos, nor the experience, of most professionals in health care. Nevertheless, the concept of collaboration has become increasingly popular in recent years, promising to enhance all aspects of work, academic, and political life. And while collaboration is a significant and complex phenomenon, it has not been clearly understood for its impact on health care professionals and their work, or for the factors that influence its success or failure. The purpose of the study was to explore the meaning of collaboration, as conveyed by the lived experience of health care professionals, as well as the interpersonal and interactional determinants and their impact on the outcomes of their collaboration. The conceptual paradigm of phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenological methods guided the research. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 health care professionals engaged in interprofessional practice in a novel community-based geriatric care program. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Ricoeur’s procedural steps were used to analyze the transcripts. Acquiring the ‘real world’ experiences of health care professionals enabled the emergence of six themes: engaging in collective thinking and action to produce best outcomes and optimize clients’ health; responding to collaboration for self and other members as a continued work in progress; experiencing the personal and professional rewards as markers of success with collaboration; existing challenges create barriers that impede collaboration; experiencing the interactional dynamics of collaboration and their influences requires the interpersonal attributes of quality communication, openness, trust, and respect; and forming a common vision is necessary for collaboration but difficult to achieve. The findings of this study suggest that collaboration is a genuinely experiential phenomenon: it is a human process that requires leadership on the part of all health care professionals to negotiate and agree upon the processes that will enhance their relationships and are necessary for collaboration to unfold. This study produced a number of recommendations that can be offered to multiple stakeholders in the geriatric care setting, as well as extended to those in the other domains of health care.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 234-243). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.