Columbus Publishers

International Journal of Nursing and Health Care Science

Volume 01: Issue 14

Boyce PS, et al.

components of IPE; describes development, roll-out and evaluation of CUNY’s HHS Sim-IPE Pilot; discusses implications for health professions programs and plans for expanding the CUNY HHS IPE initiative.

## Background and Overview of IPE

According to the WHO, IPE can play a significant role in mitigating many of the challenges faced by health systems around the world [1]. Communication errors and barriers between disciplines is cited as one of the main causes of medical errors [2,3]. IPE promotes interdisciplinary communications before actual work with patients [3,4]. This call to action has motivated HHS professions to shift from traditional, discipline-specific, and siloed methods of education to a collaborative, practice-ready workforce [1].

The WHO [1] suggests that IPE should be compulsory for health professions training. In Canada, IPE is a requirement in nursing curricula [5]. The Health Council of Canada recommends that each university health sciences program offer an IPE subject [6]. IPE is now a mandatory requirement in the United Kingdom for pre- registration training in health and social care [6]. Although IPE is recommended in the United States, there is no such widespread requirement, with individual programs or colleges typically determining their own approach by following recommendations of professional accrediting bodies. Meanwhile, the Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative (HPAC) in conjunction with the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education, are working together to develop guidelines for leaders of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) who are responsible for planning IPE activity and curricula, along with various accreditation bodies, to integrate IPE standards for health professions training.

IPE involves multiple disciplines participating in shared learning experiences. According to a 10-year literature review of works published between 2007 and 2017, nursing, medicine, Physical Therapy (PT), pharmacy, Respiratory Therapy (RT), Occupational Therapy (OT), dentistry, and paramedic students are the most common professions participating in IPE [7]. In this analysis, a range of 2-13 professions participate in IPE activities, with three to six professions being the most common arrangement. While HPAC identified 25 fields and specialties as members, and those studying in these HHS programs participate in varying levels of IPE experiences, disciplines outside of the health professions are also reported as participating in IPE activities, such as criminal justice [8], early childhood education, child and youth care [9], and even art [10].

## IPEC Core Competencies

The Interprofessional Education Collaborative [11] has identified four core competencies to prepare future health professionals for enhanced team-based care of patients and to improve population health outcomes: 1) values/ethics of interprofessional practice; 2) roles/responsibilities; 3) interprofessional communication; and 4) teams and teamwork. Developing innovative experiences for HHS professional students to meet the four IPEC competencies is critical. These four competencies entail working with other disciplines of the healthcare team to promote and sustain mutual respect and shared values, understanding and awareness of the roles and responsibilities of the interprofessional healthcare team, interprofessional communication that promotes a team approach in the promotion of health and prevention of disease, and applying teamwork skills to plan, implement and evaluate patient centered-care [11].

## IPE Modalities

There are various methods of conducting IPE, such as in the classroom, the simulation (Sim) lab, online, and in practice settings. Likewise, there are various learning activities that may be implemented for IPE, including: didactic learning; Sim using Standardized Patients (SPs), high-fidelity mannequins or other simulators; clinical observation; and clinical practice [12]. Service learning is another activity utilized in IPE [10,12]. Based on a review of the literature (2007-2017), the most common types of simulations were mannequin alone (n = 33), or SP alone (n = 17), SP plus mannequin (n = 11) or other types of multiple simulations (n = 18) [7].

While not the primary purpose of IPE, Christopher, and colleagues [3] found that between Physician Assistant (PA) and pharmacy students, each discipline learned more about the other, which is “Vital to comprehensive healthcare education”. Students also expressed valuing the SP learning experience. Similarly, faculty found it useful to assess the skills of students, particularly clinical reasoning and clinical thinking skills [13]. Another demonstrated benefit of IPE is enhancing confidence in students [14].