October 2012: Interprofessional Collaboration(?)

“Do none of you talk to each other?”: the challenges facing the implementation of interprofessional education

Carlisle C, Cooper H, Watkins C. Medical Teacher. 2004; 26(6): 545-552.

One very popular topic in medical and health educational research right now is interprofessional education (IPE). In discussing the benefits of IPE, our CAO, Kevin Hinchey, has pointed out the paradox in our clinical educational system using a seasonally-appropriate football metaphor: “It’s as if we train our position players in separate facilities and then on game day, we expect them all to come to the field and work well together.” In other words, fragmented training may not be the best approach towards cohesive practice.

In the article above, Carlisle, Cooper and Watkins explore IPE through the various parties involved. Echoing Dr. Hinchey, the authors note that expecting our professionals to work well together in practice “is a bit like shutting the door after the horse has bolted.”^{(p. 545)} To explore the feasibility of IPE during student training, the authors conduct focus groups, asking a semi-structured protocol of questions to students, patients, and practitioners and then analyzed the qualitative data.

 What were their findings? As with all qualitative studies, findings are in the form of themes, or patterns, identified in the data. The authors identified themes supporting the advantages of IPE and the challenges of initiating and implementing IPE – the full description of each, though, is beyond the scope of one short email.

Indeed, this article presents a worthwhile review of qualitative data collection and presentation of findings. Even more valuable, however, is the collective sentiment of the diverse group of participants, calling for integration of IPE earlier in our students’ careers and need for each group to break down “traditional” cultural attitudes which can often perpetuate disconnected education and practice. Exploring opportunities to overcome this disconnect can get us to work better on game day, which will ultimately help our patients win.

Bottom Line:

Interprofessional education and focus groups and two hot topics for our medical and health education researchers right now. This article, published out of the UK-based journal, Medical Teacher, satisfies our curiosity to learn more about both.