Background: Interprofessionalism is an increasingly important part of hospitalist clinical practice, allowing providers to maximize the breadth of care provided to patients. As a result, teaching Interprofessional (IP) skills has become an integral part of Undergraduate Medical Education (UME), as guided by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice . At the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), early Interprofessional Education (IPE) curricula involved small group sessions to discuss principles of interprofessional teamwork as well as share interprofessional team experiences. Groups were often composed of learners from the UMMS as well as the Graduate School of Nursing (GSN) and led by clinical and GSN faculty. These sessions lacked hands-on experience in real-world clinical practice, thus preventing learners from practical application of their skills in IP competencies.
Purpose: The Interprofessional Experience was designed so that learners can work directly with an interprofessional team member in a clinical setting, transforming education about this competency from theoretical classroom-based discussion to application. Learners submitted preferences for their assignments, thus allowing them to connect with IP team members who work in their desired specialty. Finally, targeted reflection was included to encourage introspective growth. Reflection prompts were designed to foster deeper understanding of the team member’s contributions to the IP care team as well as transformational IP empathy.
Description: Third-year medical students were paired with IP team members in a mostly 1:1 ratio. Medical students spent one two-hour session shadowing and working alongside their IP team member. Medical students were asked to appreciate their team member’s clinical expertise and scope of practice as well as daily workflow, including identifying sources of stress and systems-level barriers to optimal work as perceived by their team member. Learners were subsequently asked to write a reflective piece on what they had learned about their interprofessional team member and the nature of their work, including how changing their behaviors could help this team member be more effective in providing care to their shared patients. Medical students were paired with: ICU nurses, case managers, social workers, physical and occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, flow coordinators, patient advocates, medical interpreters, pharmacists, nutritionists, harm reduction specialists, lactation consultants, licensed practical nurses and nurse practitioners.
Conclusions: While incredibly labor- and time-intensive, the Interprofessional Experiences were well received by students. Official evaluations are forthcoming, but summative comments from reflections describe these experiences as “eye-opening”, “incredibly educational”, “amazing”, “excellent”, “valuable”, and “enriching”. The benefits of this experiential interprofessional experience are not limited to UME and could also be applicable to Graduate Medical Education (GME) as well as ongoing faculty development for hospitalists.