Investigating the Interprofessional Socialization of Healthcare Educators Following an Interprofessional Simulation Facilitator Training Program: A Mixed Methods Study
Creators: name: Dolan, Sara
Publisher: name: Nursing
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Interprofessional Socialization
subject: Interprofessional Education
subject: Healthcare Educator
subject: Nursing
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: Background: Patient safety incidents due to poor interprofessional collaboration have devastating impacts on patients and their families. Interprofessional socialization can lead to interprofessional collaboration. Interprofessional education is one method used to promote interprofessional socialization. Healthcare educators in the practice setting are tasked with delivering interprofessional education; however, they require specialized skills and interprofessional connections to effectively facilitate interprofessional learning. Although there is literature discussing the interprofessional socialization of students and frontline staff, there is a gap in the literature regarding the interprofessional socialization of healthcare educators in the practice setting. Purpose: The purpose of this research was to examine the experiences and perceptions of healthcare educators in the practice setting regarding interprofessional socialization following an interprofessional simulation facilitator training (SimSkills). Methods: I completed an explanatory sequential mixed methods study, including secondary data from program evaluation surveys (n = 87) and follow-up semi-structured interviews (n= 17), to examine participants perceptions and experiences of interprofessional socialization. In the first (quantitative) phase of the study, data were collected from the provincial simulation program, eSIM, in Alberta as part of an ongoing program evaluation. Attendees of the SimSkills program were invited to complete a retrospective pre-post program evaluation survey to evaluate their attitudes toward interprofessional socialization. In the second (qualitative) phase of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the secondary data findings in greater depth. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data and qualitative data were analyzed using interpretive description. Integration occurred when quantitative data were used to inform the interview guide and qualitative data were used to explain quantitative results. Results: There was a statistically significant increase in the attitude toward interprofessional socialization following the training. Qualitative findings revealed five themes regarding interprofessional socialization: (a) benefits gained through interprofessional socialization, (b) interprofessional, uniprofessional, or both (dual identity), (c) facilitators to interprofessional socialization, (d) barriers to interprofessional socialization, and (f) opportunities to strengthen interprofessional socialization. Conclusion: Healthcare educators have positive views of interprofessional socialization; however, interprofessional socialization behaviors are inconsistent with interprofessional socialization behaviors across settings. Interprofessional learning opportunities may enhance interprofessional socialization among healthcare educators.