Reflective Essay On Interprofessional Education

Interprofessional education is defined as interactive educational activities involving two or more professions that foster collaboration to improve patient care (Freeth, Hammick, Koppel, & Reeves, 2002).

Another important aspect of healthcare is effective interprofessional practice. This allows practitioners from different disciplines to work together to provide the best care for patients. There are four areas of competency in interprofessional collaborative practice. They are values/ethics, roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams/teamwork (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). Each of these areas contribute to skilled interprofessional

This week’s assigned readings focus on the importance of inter-professional teamwork and collaboration within the healthcare environment. Porter-O Grady describes in the readings that the complex nature of our healthcare system and the complex needs of patients call for a multifaceted approach to patient care (2013). This is greatly because current healthcare practices often necessitate for patients to obtain care from various care settings and from various specialties, making it nearly impossible for one discipline to effectively meet all of the patient’s needs (Porter-O Grady,2013). Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) supports a multifaceted approach to care and is defined by Kara et al. (2015) as the process through which different discplines

My current knowledge of Interprofessional Health Education is that it allows the people in the health care team to learn each and everyone’s roles, responsibilities, and limitations. It gives everyone an insight on how can they work efficiently and effectively so they can give the best possible care to their patients. Interprofessional Collaboration is when health care professionals work with one another to provide a holistic care management to their patients.

In interprofessional care, it is important that the health care providers build skills that enhance interprofessional communication and interaction no matter what model is practiced. Successful interprofessional communication is a necessary competency that can ensure achievements of outcomes, improvement of team functioning, efficiency, and individual value (Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel, 2011). Training, simulation experiences, group projects, and personal interactions with other staff members can facilitating positive or negative interactions that can affect communication. To ensure that successful interprofessional communication and interaction, much consideration should also be given to the environment

Interprofessional Education, IPE event took place on July 22nd, 2016. The purpose of IPE is for us to learn how to work together as a health care team effectively collaborating with other health care members. In order to do so, each individual needed to understand not only his or her role and responsibility of a given role but also other team members’ roles and responsibilities. In our event, it was Interprofessional Health care Team Simulation with roles of a registered practical nurse and a Food Service supervisor, and a registered social worker and a personal support worker and a patient and her family member. We were given the scenario with the patient, Mrs. Johnston, 93 years old resident of a nursing home. My role was a RPN. The situation given was that we were asked by the patient’s family member to have a meeting with the health care team since her family member was concerned about her declining health status accompanied by her body weight loss.

Healthcare is continuously changing with the modern times and whilst there have been many advancements in technologies and techniques; the roles of health care professionals have also changed significantly and the crucial need for inter-professional practice emerged. Interprofessional practice is essential as there is no single profession that can meet all of a patient's needs. (Matziou et al., 2014) For an effective interprofessional collaboration, it is essential that all professionals have a clear definition, awareness, and recognition of each profession and they are able to communicate effectively between different professions (Caldwell and Atwal, 2003). This essay will explain interprofessional practice and why it is essential for quality health outcomes, outline the roles and responsibilities of several health care professions and discuss the importance of interprofessional communication.

As time goes by, people get infected with new diseases or current prevailing diseases. Consequently, new drugs are produced in an attempt to overcome these diseases, which results in patients with complex health needs. The complexity of the patients’ healthcare therefore needs to be addressed by more than one discipline. Interprofessional collaborative care is a type of health care that involves people from different professions working together and relying on each other to provide effective care to patients. Interprofessional collaborative care is important and predominantly a focus of the health care reform because it improves healthcare outcome for the patients and reduces disagreements between different professions. I was able to experience interprofessional care when my grandma was diagnosed with cancer. The physician and the pharmacist worked together in ensuring that she got the proper medication that would not have any side effects on her. In addition, the physician would call the pharmacy every two weeks to check on my grandma’s progress and to ensure that she had picked up her medications. Both my grandma and I were grateful because we felt that our needs were taken care of appropriately. Moreover, interprofessional health care is important in a curriculum because if helps the students to be better prepared to work as a team. This is achieved by teaching students about their own profession while receiving an understanding of the other professions and the roles they

Educational viewpoints are segregated as each department work within its own distinct silo creating limited collaborative opportunities with other health care professions and the public (Barr, Koppel, Reeves, Hammick, & Freeth, 2005; Campbell, 2003;D’Amour & Oandsan, 2005). Often, the AT profession is not included in discussions of interprofessional education (IPE) at the institutional and governmental levels. This lack of comprehension about other professionals’ roles and responsibilities, as well as limited opportunities to learn together, both impact collaboration between disciplines and ultimately can impact patient centered care

Health care professionals are required to provide a high level quality of care whilst at the same time being cost effective in a constantly evolving world (Gilbert and Bainbridge, 2011 DoH, 2010a). Interprofessional education (IPE), in which two or more professionals can learn from, with and about each other, is just one component in the push for excellent care (CAIPE 2002). Both interprofessional education and interprofessional working are reinforced by policy and also the lessons learned from historical mistakes due to lack of collaboration in the past (DoH 2010b, DoH and Home Office and DES, 2003).

Interprofessional practice is a collaborative practice where multiple health professionals work together in health services to provide comprehensive services to their patients, families and communities to get a more effective result by improving the quality of work. The collaborative practise is basically used by the nursing team or other health care workers who are the member of interprofessional team. “A call for interprofessional team and collaborative practice development has been sounded across Canada because this model is viewed as the way to ensure that all professionals and providers can practice to the full potential of their role and competencies” (Potter, 2014). Interprofessional collaborative practice is a way to ensure that human health resources are used properly which help to decrease the duration time for achieving a quality care.

I too have experienced the flow of practice within a teaching hospital, and the art of preceptors teaching students “their way” often holds true. Although many floors have a cohesive interprofessional practice, other floors fall short on interprofessionality and teaching philosophy tends to flow with the culture of the floor. The Interprofessional Educational Education Collaborative (2011) is a good implementation of interprofessionality because of the socialization component within it, as you previously stated. Instead of health care disciplines having preconceived notions about each other and their cultures, the disciplines work to understand each other and gain mutual trust and respect for each other. According to the collaborative, preceptors

The roles inventory activity was a great learning opportunity for us because most of us are from different counties therefore we have no idea what some of these professions are. This activity gave us a chance, to learn about the many things done by people from all different professional back grounds such as physician assistant, physical therapist, Optometrist or occupational therapist. After going over the spread sheet of different responsibilities that everyone in each profession has it clearly made sense as to how important interprofessional education is. There are many responsibilities that we have as pharmacists and those responsibilities are shared equally by the people of other professions as well. During interprofessional education we

As you have stated, there a number of benefits to interprofessional practice and education. Therefore, by making interprofessional education a required class it would benefit many students who are just starting their careers. This way, students would be able to get a better idea of understanding not only within their own professions but those they will have to work with on a daily basis. Furthermore, IPE is being recognized even moreso and supported by many organizations, such as the Institute of Medicine. This notable institution also stated, “health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team…” (Buring, 2009). Another benefit to having IPE in colleges and other institutions is

According to Hall (2005, pp188), “Insight into the educational, systemic and personal factors, which contribute to the culture of professions, can help guide the development of innovative educational methodologies to improve inter-professional collaborative practice.” IPE is integral in a healthcare environment, and serves to allow individuals within the healthcare profession to gain an appreciation for differing roles. Using the Kolb’s Learning Cycle (1984), I will chronologically reflect upon my experiences of IPE, considering concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation.