Understanding interprofessional education
In most university classrooms, instructors use a range of small and large group activities that require students to work collaboratively. The assignments are prepared with the expectation that students work efficiently, effectively, and respectfully together. Because many of our classrooms are comprised of different generations of learners, including individuals with very diverse cultural backgrounds (i.e., age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, etc.), this may be an unfair expectation to place on students. We intend to discuss some principles that have emerged from the health-care disciplines that could be incorporated into any curriculum to support all students engaged in collaborative activities.
It is fair to assume that most of us use a range of teaching approaches and activities with our students. Among these approaches may be small group and large group projects. Because these activities can be considered a student’s first foray into working collaboratively with colleagues from different generations (i.e., millennials, baby boomers, Gen-Xers) and cultures (i.e., gender, religions, ethnicity, and so on), we must provide them with the skills necessary to share ideas while also recognizing and appreciating differing points of view and background knowledge. Unfortunately, what often occurs is that we assign these small or large group activities, assuming students will know how to navigate these differences. In reality, we may be providing a disservice by not explicitly teaching students how to navigate these waters.
Accredited health-care related disciplines have been mandated to embed interprofessional education (IPE) into their pre-practice curriculum. Interprofessional education is defined as two or more disciplines working together to improve the quality of care for patients and to reduce the overall cost of health-care. In our disciplines, speech-language pathology and athletic training respectively, our accrediting bodies have charged us with preparing students to work collaboratively, as members of health-care teams. Fortunately, to support us in this endeavor, the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC; 2016), consisting of numerous professional organizations, has identified four competencies and sub-competencies to guide our teaching of effective interprofessional collaboration. It is these competencies we suggest can be used by any profession to prepare all students to be competent, collaborative, and competitive professionals of tomorrow.
The IPEC identifies four essential competences when working as members of teams. The four competences, communication, teamwork, values and ethics, and roles and responsibilities are areas any faculty member can emphasize when teaching students about successful collaborations. Under each of these competencies are specific sub-competencies, which are essential elements of any collaborative endeavor. By teaching these competencies, instructors can support how students work together.
We will discuss three of the competences and highlight several of the sub-competencies under each. (We encourage you to investigate the IPEC documents for a listing of all sub-competencies.
Values and Ethics highlight working respectfully with colleagues from other disciplines while recognizing common values. This includes accepting cultural diversity and the individuality of each team member and using honesty and integrity in interactions with team members.
Interprofessional Communication highlights engaging with team members in a manner that is beneficial to all members of the team. This competency includes sharing one’s knowledge with confidence and respect to ensure all members have a common understanding and appreciation for the unique and varied backgrounds brought to the assignment. The discussion surrounding these competencies should not be designed to change a person’s point-of-view or beliefs, but rather to discuss with them that differing points-of-view exist and that our role, as team members, is to respect that we will have different perspectives.
Roles and Responsibilities encompasses not only having an understanding of our role as a member of the team, but also having the knowledge and skills brought to the learning table by our colleagues. This includes the ability to communicate our role as a member of the team while recognizing what we may not know about other roles.
Ultimately, when working successfully as a member of a team, we want our students to be aware of the strengths and abilities brought to the table by all team members.
How Can We Teach These Competencies?
At the college level, our goal is to prepare students to be successful in their chosen professions. We provide them the knowledge and skills specific to their respective programs. For example, in speech-language pathology, we prepare our students to work with adults and children who have a range of communication disorders. In the field of athletic training, we prepare our students to work with athletes and various sports-related injuries. Alternatively, in the field of business and finance, students are preparing to become financial analyst or stockbrokers. If we are not taking the added step of teaching students how to work effectively as members of teams during their schooling, how can we expect them to navigate teaming when they enter the workforce? Giving students the knowledge and skills to work as members of a team could go a long way to ensuring successful membership in any organization. By embedding the principles of interprofessional education into our different programs, university faculty will be giving students the opportunity to practice navigating professional relationships, respecting the viewpoints of others and communicating effectively to improve their chances of being welcomed into the culture of an organization or company.
Interprofessional Education Collaborative Activities
Using workshops that include case-based scenarios, which require students to solve a problem, has proven effective for teaching many of the competencies, including values and ethics (Manspeaker, Brown, Wallace, DiBartola, & Morgan, 2017). Once our students understand what it means to work collaboratively, how can we help them apply these concepts? In other words, how could we teach them to work collaboratively with students both within and across professions? One way is to have students from one discipline “teach” students of another discipline. For example, having business student’s work with culinary students to develop a business plan for a new restaurant. Or, interior design students might work with engineering students to learn about tamping down the noise in a home with high ceilings. The goal is to get them thinking together to solve a shared priority. However, for this interprofessional engagement to work, both groups must enter the activities with a shared spirit of collaboration. The students have to come at the problem with a shared language, respect for the background knowledge provided by each member, and the ability to communicate differences of opinion respectfully.
In summary, incorporating IPE in your classroom may seem daunting but simple collaboration with others outside of your field is one way to start. We can model this by the work we already do on interdisciplinary teams. As with all new teaching techniques, they may not be successful with the first iteration but your students are better because you took the risk.
References
- Interprofessional Education Collaborative (2016). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: Report of an expert panel. Washington, DC. Retrieved from: http://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/Interprofessional-Collaboration-Core-Competency.pdf
- Manspeaker, S.A., Donoso Brown, E.V., Wallace, S.E., DiBartola, L., & Morgan , A. (2017). Examining the perceived impact of an ethics workshop on interprofessional values and teamwork. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 31(5), 628-637.