Impact of interprofessional education on collaboration attitudes, skills, and behavior among primary care professionals. Robben S, Perry M, van Nieuwenhuijzen L, van Achterberg T, Rikkert MO, Schers H, Heinen M, Melis R. J Continuing Ed Health Prof. 2012; 32(3): 196-204. Available online from the Baystate Health Sciences Library, or from PubMed at your institution.
Robben and colleagues offer a perfect platform for discussion with this article outlining a program evaluation of an interprofessional educational intervention in the Netherlands. As if the application of social cognitive theory and Kirkpatrick's levels of program evaluation outcomes weren't enough, we are also invited to enjoy the design and analysis of a mixed-methods approach to evaluation.
So we're good, right? Not quite. Similar to the way that my computer's Spellcheck--er, Spell-check feature still questions me when I write "interprofessional" as a non-hyphenated word even though I do it on purpose, so too must we continue to question educational research even though it is published.
I do not profess to say that this study is flawed (or that it isn't). But it does require exploration into key concepts. For example, the tools used for the quantitative exploration of this study are noted to produce valid scores; but where's the evidence? Also, the qualitative data support many themes in the results, but no data (direct quotes) are provided? And I dare you to read this article without Googling "human movement scientist" and "Hawthorne effect." All in all, this article is a stone on which to sharpen your critical analysis teeth. Dig in.
interprofessional inter-professional nature of the content is just the cherry on top.
So we're good, right? Not quite. Similar to the way that my computer's Spellcheck--er, Spell-check feature still questions me when I write "interprofessional" as a non-hyphenated word even though I do it on purpose, so too must we continue to question educational research even though it is published.
I do not profess to say that this study is flawed (or that it isn't). But it does require exploration into key concepts. For example, the tools used for the quantitative exploration of this study are noted to produce valid scores; but where's the evidence? Also, the qualitative data support many themes in the results, but no data (direct quotes) are provided? And I dare you to read this article without Googling "human movement scientist" and "Hawthorne effect." All in all, this article is a stone on which to sharpen your critical analysis teeth. Dig in.
Using Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluation my reaction to this article is to ask what their goal of this interprofesional program was? The authors brought several professionals together to learn about, with, and from each other , regarding the care of frail elderly. The results clearly indicate that the appropriate disciplines were present to collaborate on the issue and yet the discussion itself states that this endeavor was challenging as tailoring information to specific professionals is difficult” .I think the authors missed the point of an interprofesional program! Do the frail elderly adapt themselves somehow when they visit a physical therapist, pharmacists, nurse or provider? No, they stay the same. It is our professional perspective that sees them differently. That is the point of interprofesional education; to learn what each other’s professional perspective is on one topic, and utilize each other expertise to address gaps.
ReplyDeleteI learned that that if gender matters (in relation to my outcomes) I will state it, otherwise the professionals sampled was more important information to me. I would have liked more information on why the authors chose to sample professionals who either been very positive or very negative in the quantitative evaluation. I think the mixed methodology design was more indecisive then deliberate to their research.
Speaking of mixed I agree with you Rebecca on the terminology used in this paper. My behavioral response to this article is to correct the usage of the terms interdisciplinary and interprofesional! Yes there is difference between getting everyone in the same together to learn and getting all those professionals in the room together to work and learn together.