(043) Interprofessional Communication Curriculum Can Improve Self-ratings of Interprofessional Practice Competencies

Background/Significance:

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrists serve in leadership positions within interprofessional collaborative care teams. Across professions, training programs have little training in interprofessional practice competencies including interprofessional communication. We propose an outline of an interprofessional communication curriculum delivered to learners across professional backgrounds and levels of training.

Methods:

We created a four-hour training for our Primary Care-Mental Health Integration Program, attended by Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Registered Nurse care managers, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, and Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselors based on the InterProfessional Education Collaborative (IPEC, 2016) Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice. The training was co-facilitated by one Psychiatrist and one Psychologist with participants assigned to small, interprofessional groups.

Hour 1

Introduce the competencies
Discuss current roles and responsibilities

Hour 2

Discuss training and other experiences that brought them to their current roles

Hour 3
Discuss a case vignette, and how each profession:

Makes triage decisions
Structures interview
Plans treatment, documents, and provides follow-up communication after assessment.

Hour 4

Discuss challenges/pitfalls in interprofessional communication
Create an action item to address a particular challenge.

Participants were surveyed for a self-rating of IPEC competencies prior to and after training, using a survey instrument described in Pan, 2022.

Results:

29 participants attended the training. 25 participants (11 Psychologists, 7 RNs, 4 Psychiatrist, and 3 LCSW/LPMHCs) responded to the survey prior to training, and 23 participants (12 Psychologists, 6 RNs, 4 Psychiatrist, and 1 LCSW/LPMHC) responded to the survey after training. Two sample t-tests assuming equal variances were conducted to compare responses from participants prior to and after training. We found no significant differences on self-ratings of items related to Values/Ethics, but found significant increases in self-ratings of competence on items related to Roles/Responsibilities (“Understand the roles of other interdisciplinary team members” t=-1.99, p=0.05), Interprofessional Communication (“Express one’s knowledge and opinions to team members” t=-1.99, p=0.05; “Recognize how one’s own uniqueness within the healthcare team contributes to effective communication” t=-2.99, p=0.04; “Give timely/sensitive/instructive feedback” t=-2.60, p=0.01), and Teams/Teamwork (“Integrate the knowledge/experience of other professions” t=-2.16, p=0.04; “Engage self and others to constructively manage differences of opinion” t=-2.68, p=0.01; “Share accountability with other professions/patients/communities” t=-1.85, p=0.07).



Discussion:

A shift towards team-based, collaborative care has created a push for more interprofessional education, through which trainees from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other. Interprofessional communications training can improve team-based collaborative practice skills as emphasized in the WHO, 2010 framework.

Conclusion/Implications:

A four-hour curriculum created around the IPEC Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice can increase self-ratings for interprofessional practice competencies at the staff level, with learners across professional backgrounds.

References:

Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2016). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: 2016 update. Washington, DC: Interprofessional Education Collaborative.
Pan, T. Y., Bruschwein, H. M., & Ward, W. L. (2022). Interprofessional Education: Psychology Trainee Experiences and Perspectives on Team Skills. Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings, 29(1), 1–9.
World Health Organization (WHO). (2010). Framework for action on interprofessional education & collaborative practice.