Background: Rounds are critical for facilitating patient care, supporting interprofessional communication and providing education for trainees (1,2). Social distancing requirements in the era of COVID led to significant changes to the traditional rounding structure (3). The impact of these changes on patient care, interprofessional communication and education remain unknown. Methods: An interprofessional needs assessment was [...]

Background: The discharge process is complex and high-risk. Clear and accurate communication between the physician or Advanced Practice Provider (providers), nurse, and patient are essential to ensure a safe and effective transition of care. Upon literature review, there have not been studies looking at interprofessional communication during the discharge process. Also, our institution (a large [...]

Background: Medical errors in hospitals are a significant threat to patient safety and often result from poor communication or poorly-activated interprofessional teams. Despite a recent focus on interprofessional education (IPE) in pre-clinical years and simulation settings, formal curricula for teaching medical trainees interprofessional communication and teamwork skills in clinical settings are lacking. Purpose: To create [...]

Background: One in five Americans (64 million) speak a language other than English, and one in twelve Americans (26 million) speak English less than “very well”, classifying them as having limited English proficiency (LEP). LEP patients have difficulty navigating the healthcare system due to language barriers in understanding their treatment plans, communicating with providers and [...]

Background: The Limited English Proficiency (LEP) population is at higher risk of receiving poorer care and worse health outcomes compared to their English-speaking counterparts. Interpreters should be utilized to help improve these encounters, but physicians are rarely trained on how to work with interpreters effectively. This is reflected in a prior study showing that residents [...]

Background: Despite efforts to improve the care of hospitalized patients, adverse events remain common. Care is siloed across disparate providers and patients are not engaged in their own care plans. In a collaborative care model, patients, families and providers partner to integrate high-quality care across disciplines to best meet patients’ needs. While support for delivering [...]

Background: When people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) access the US healthcare system, a disparity is created, leading to worse outcomes and lower quality of care.1-5 In-person interpreters are essential in circumventing these disparities, yet pitfalls to collaboration between providers and interpreters persist.6-9 This study’s goal was to assess barriers and identify opportunities for intervention [...]

Background: Teamwork is essential to providing safe, effective, patient-centered care. Prior research documented discrepancies in perceptions of teamwork and collaboration among nurses and physicians. However, prior studies have been limited to single sites and academic medical centers. Methods: We conducted surveys of healthcare professionals in 4 hospitals participating in the REdesigning SystEms to Improve Teamwork [...]

Background: Code blue situations, being uncommon yet stressful, require excellent team communication; they can pose challenges for deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) clinicians, trainees, and interpreters, though DHH providers are a growing source of language-concordant care for DHH people, an underserved population. No known training specifically addresses such challenges. As educators and mentors, we [...]

Background: Nurse-physician teamwork is a critical determinant of outcomes among hospitalized patients. Although improvement interventions have been designed for specific settings (eg, intensive care units and operating rooms), less attention has been given to nurse-physician teamwork in hospital medicine. Therefore, our goal was to assess the quality and effectiveness of interventions for improving nurse-physician teamwork [...]