Interprofessional Care: an Introductory Session

on the Roles of Health Professionals

Student Guide

Introduction:

One of the biggest barriers to interprofessional collegiality is the lack of awareness about the strengths of each team member. This lack of understanding can potentially lead to poor communication between team members, poor efficiency within the team, and ultimately patient care will suffer. The purpose of this session is to highlight the major roles that physicians, pharmacists, and physician assistants play on the patient care team and to identify effective communication skills that can be used to collaborate towards optimal patient outcomes. The session will primarily utilize group discussion punctuated by small group activities to create interprofessional understanding. Classrooms will consist of students from the physician assistant, pharmacy and medicine programs. Facilitators will consist of faculty from pharmacy, physician assistant and medicine.

Goals:

  1. Clarify the role of the physicians, pharmacists, and physician assistants on the health care team
  2. Formulate thecommunication skills necessary for working together on a patient care team

Outcomes:

By the end of the session, students will:

  1. Identify and resolve misconceptions about other health professions
  2. Collaborate to develop a plan for patient care
  3. Produce a list of the best practices for working effectively on a health care team

Resources & Recommended Reading:

  1. Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel. (2011). Core competencies for inter-professional collaborative practice: Report of an expert panel. Washington, D.C.: Inter-professional Education Collaborative.
  2. Singla DL, MacKinnon GE, MacKinnon KJ, Younis W, Field B. Interdisciplinary approach to teaching medication adherence to pharmacy and osteopathic medical students. JAOA. March 2004; 104 (3): 127-132.
  3. Weinstein RS, McNeely RA, Holcomb MJ, et al. Technologies for interprofessional education: The interprofessional education-distributed “e-classroom of the future.” Allied Health. 2010; 39 (3 pt 2): 238-245.
  4. Evans CH, Cashman SB, Page DA, Garr DR. Model approaches for advancing interprofessional prevention education. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2011; 40 (2): 245-260.
  5. Thistlethwaite J, Moran M, on behalf of the World Health Organization Study Group on Inter-professional Education and Collaborative Practice. Learning outcomes for interprofessional education (IPE): Literature review and synthesis. Journal of Interprofessional Care. September 2010; 24(5): 503-513
  6. Executive summary: Standards of medical care in diabetes - 2013. Diabetes Care. 2013; 36 (S1): S11-S66.

Timeline Overview:

Minutes / Description
00:00-00:50 / Introductions, Overview,and Ice Breaker Activity
00:50-01:40 / Team BuildingTaking Care of a Patient
01:40-02:00 / Summary and Best Practices
02:00 / Session Conclusion

The times above are approximate. Your facilitator may adjust this schedule according to the progress in your group.

Scheduleand Instructions:

00:00-00:50 / Introductions, Overview, and Ice Breaker Activity
  1. As you enter the classroom, seat yourself with your assigned small group, and make sure to sit next to a student from another health profession.
  2. Introduce yourselves (names, specialty and level of training) within your own small group and participate in the ice-breaker outlined below.

Ice-Breaker - True or False?

Pair up with a student from a different health profession. Each student should come up with 3 things about their profession; 2 things that are true and one that is false, then guess which ones are true and which one is false.

Wrap-up

To conclude the icebreaker activity, the classroom will reconvene as a large group to share the 2-3 common misperceptions of each profession.

00:50-01:40 / Team Building & Taking Care of a Patient

During this segment, you will have the opportunity to work through a common patient carescenario.

Instructions

  1. Work together to establish team ground rules
  2. Elect a scribe to observe,take notes, and report on the team process (team dynamics; challenges encountered; resulting conflicts and resolutions; misconceptions that were addressed and/or resolved; any revelations that occurred).
  3. Task 1, the “huddle” (~25 minutes): Read the case and work together to determine each other’sroles in the care of this patient. What information is needed from the patient or elsewhere? Who will obtain it during the patient encounter? Who will conduct the History, Physical Examination, Medication History, Patient Education (including nutrition, medications, preventative care, and other care related to diabetes), ordering Diagnostics/Labs, making referrals, Medication Management, and who will give the final Case Presentation?
  4. Task 2 (~10 minutes): Review and reflect upon the process and identify 2-3 best practices that your team used to allow for optimal teamwork and identify 1 or 2 processes that hindered teamwork.

Patient Case:

You have volunteered to participate in aninterprofessional student-run clinic for underserved patients in Los Angeles on a Saturday. Mrs. Torres is the first patient. She is a 41-year-old housewife presenting with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Her elevated blood sugar was first detected while being screened at health fair. She was then seen at another clinic and received a prescription for a once daily oral hypoglycemic medication, and was told to follow up after testing her own glucose every morning for 2 weeks. She could not afford to return to that clinic and is here for further treatment. Her husband works 12 to 14 hours a day in construction when there is work available, and she has 4 children ages 1 to 8 years. Her weight is 200 lbs, she is 5’5”, her non-fasting glucose level today is elevated at 240 mg/dl and blood pressure is normal at 120/80 mm Hg. She has not purchased the glucose-testing kit needed for self-monitoring.

01:40-02:00 / Summary and Best Practices

Upon reconvening as a large group, each small group scribe will have 2-3 minutes to share their team’s reflections and their “best practices.” The following are some potential things to think about when formulating your list of “best practices.”

  1. What are the shared goals are for this patient?
  2. What was easiest and most difficult about working together?
  3. What lessons did you learn about working together as health professionals?
  4. Who was missing from the team? What would they have potentially contributed?
  5. What information is needed from other professional team member(s)?
  6. What barriers did you discover to providing optimal patient care?

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