The health-care sector is complex, with a wide variety of patients and staff coming into contact with one another on a daily basis. Learning to work together effectively and efficiently is one of the most important things students can learn 鈥� which is why interprofessional education (IPE) has grown to become a vital aspect of a health-care worker鈥檚 education across the country.
Students in the Faculties of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Professions at H漫画 are required to undergo IPE as a part of their training. This training involves both theoretical education in the classroom, as well as a practice setting component in which students must apply the concepts to real life. The idea is to give students an opportunity to work collaboratively with other professions in order to provide a more well-rounded education and ultimately, a better patient experience.
There are a number of benefits to IPE. For one, it helps health-care workers understand what it is exactly that other professions do when they work with patients. This role clarification is essential for working in teams, particularly in scenarios where there may be overlapping tasks. This, in turn allows the team to communicate better, solve conflicts, avoid duplication of tasks and generally provide better care.
Teams across the province
Each year there are a number of IPE student 鈥榯eams鈥� working at health-care sites across the province, which are comprised of both H漫画 students and other students from across the province and country.
One of these teams spent its term at the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Centre. The group of nine students are from a wide variety of backgrounds, including prosthetics and orthotics, physiotherapy, recreation therapy, medicine, speech language pathology, medical lab technology, and radiological technology. The students were all doing their practicums in the stroke unit, and had at least one patient in common. They met once a week for five weeks to discuss how they were working together as a team, and what they could be doing to improve their collaborative practice.
At the end of their five weeks, the students gathered to present the results of their experience to fellow students and staff at the Rehab Centre, performing a skit that showed the very real and serious consequences of not working as a team. They demonstrated the 鈥榩atient鈥� being shuffled from staff member to staff member, becoming confused and exhausted as a result.
As the students explained to their audience afterwards, the experience highlighted the importance of each member of a health-care team not only being aware of the daily tasks of other health-care workers, but also being aware of the patient鈥檚 goals and approaching the treatment accordingly. 聽
For example, physiotherapy student Stephanie Gillcash related how she and fellow physiotherapy student, Scott Symonds, sat in on a session that their teammate, Kathleen Chiddenton, a speech-language pathology student, was holding with a mutual patient.
鈥淲e noticed that she would really give him the time to let him get out his words and to say them again. Previous to that I would have been doing physio with him and not realizing that I was [trying to finish his sentences],鈥� she says. This changed how she worked with the patient going forward, so that while he was getting physio treatment, she could also help him in other aspects of his therapy by allowing him to finish his sentences.
聽鈥淚 think just having a better understanding of what their goals are as a whole, it helps us as students and professionals to just sort of really let them work towards meeting those goals,鈥� she adds.
Professional tunnel vision was another common challenge noted by the students. 鈥淲e get hyperfocused on our own professions, so I think it鈥檚 really good to see others,鈥� said Chiddenton. 鈥淚t gives you ideas to incorporate into your own profession.鈥� Knowing how other professions work with their patients can help health-care workers to identify what kind of treatment their patients need most urgently, and then make the appropriate referrals.
Finally, IPE can also lead to improved professional confidence. 鈥淐oming in as a student to a place like the Rehab Centre, you have a lot of questions and you鈥檙e uncertain about a lot of things,鈥� said Symonds. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e trying to impress everyone while you鈥檙e here. I found something like this was really good because it took away some of the uncertainties.鈥�
Working as a team
The Yarmouth Regional Hospital also hosted an IPE team, which had students in fields like nursing, occupational therapy, recreation therapy, pharmacy, medical lab technology and dietetics. The students were subdivided into two teams: one working in palliative care and the other team on the stroke unit. The students worked together during the course of their practicums, and met once a week on Wednesdays to discuss their collaboration.
Members of the Yarmouth team (L to R)聽Michelle Lutz, Tammy Fitzgerald, Karine Smith, Sasha Wilson, Tasha Doucette (Provided photo)
Natalie Pothier, a clinical dietician at Yarmouth Regional and one of the group facilitators, says that one of the most important things the students learn is that working as a team is not easy. 鈥淥ne of the goals is to get them to understand one another and what everyone brings to the table, and work towards the same goals.鈥� Students don鈥檛 often get the chance to practice working with other professions, she said. 鈥淧eople need to practice being a team.鈥�
But it鈥檚 not just a learning experience for the students. All the IPE facilitators remarked on how the experience of guiding the students helps them to re-evaluate their own practices. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an opportunity for the facilitators to learn about each other as well,鈥� says Adele LeBlanc, a faculty member with the H漫画 School of Nursing, Yarmouth site. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a capacity builder within the students, and within the health-care sector, and within the site.鈥�
Catherine McPhail, a prosthetist at the Rehab Centre and a facilitator, agrees. 鈥淲e very often don鈥檛 take time to stop and think about how we鈥檙e doing what we鈥檙e doing,鈥� she says. 鈥淗aving the IPE experience and participating in it as a clinician and facilitating and working along with the group of students 鈥� it kinds of reminds us to continually check our practice, make changes, based on that patient鈥檚 experience.鈥�
This comes back to one of the central tenets of IPE 鈥� an emphasis on patient-centered care. Tayah McLaren, a radiological technology student who was part of the Rehab Centre team, says she has taken away a new appreciation for the importance of focusing on the patient鈥檚 goals.
鈥淸It鈥檚 about] adjusting your practice to suit the patient鈥檚 goals as opposed to applying a bit of a 鈥榯his is how it is鈥� approach.鈥�