Can a faculty-led “train the trainer” simulation-based education (SBE) program be deployed to teams of healthcare students to connect IPE and patient safety initiatives?

Molloy, Margorie

Can a faculty-led “train the trainer” simulation-based education (SBE) program be deployed to teams of healthcare students to connect IPE and patient safety initiatives?

The current climate for IPE, despite numerous efforts and best intentions, is poorly defined, inconsistent, fragmented, and non-standardized. Implementing interprofessional collaboration using a simulation-based IPE curriculum historically comes with a set of challenges. Common concerns include the traditional compartmentalization of disciplines and regulatory bodies. Role confusion within each profession is seen as a hindrance to implementing simulation-enhanced IPE. Barriers related to the cost for purchasing equipment (or space in existing simulation centers) and the time necessary for planning often quell efforts in development of IPE initiatives. As per Reeves et al. (2013) success “involves a negotiated agreement between professionals which values the expertise and contributions that various healthcare professional bring to patient care”. The success of faculty working together requires mitigation of power dynamics, poor communication patterns, lack of understanding of roles and responsibilities, and conflicts arising from different approaches to caring for patients. Effective teamwork requires specific education directed at working as an effective team and team member, as well as the opportunity to practice the learned concepts. Health profession’s education currently offers limited opportunities for practiced interaction with students of other disciplines. Simulation offers an opportunity to address these needs. Experiential learning with simulation is a useful method for educating healthcare students and providers in both discipline-specific experiences and in IPE activities. SBE therefore is an effective pedagogy to initiate and stimulate IPE endeavors. The Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel (2011) connects the work done by the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) core competencies for all health professionals (IOM, 2013). Interprofessional education occurs “when students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes” (WHO, 2010). Project collaborators envision all participating faculty and students to deliberatively work together with a goal of building a safer and better patient-centered and community/population oriented U.S. Health care system (Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel, 2011). The Core Competencies for Interprofessional Practice (IPEC, 2016) provide a framework for the exploration of the current state, opportunities, barriers/challenges, and strategies for simulation enhanced IPE. The 38 competencies are organized under four domains (Values, Ethics, Roles/Responsibilities, Interprofessional Communication, and Teams/Teamwork). Project collaborators will engage in designing simulation-based IPE scenarios using a small group problem-based learning discussion format. Once these “tabletop-like” simulations are designed, the train the trainer process can start with a targeted group of faculty who have interest in IPE initiatives (recruited through Duke AHEAD). This educational module will be designed to implement simulation-based IPE to enhance patient safety through an interactive workshop. Hands-on practice with coaching from project collaborators will highlight the teaching strategies needed to facilitate tabletop simulations. A facilitator guide will be developed to assure consistency in the delivery of the content. Once trained, participating faculty, under the guidance of the project collaborators, will engage in training small groups of students from the various health-related fields on campus. The intent of the project is to increase the number of faculty who will engage in evidence-based simulation-enhanced IPE activities as well as engage interdisciplinary groups of students. Tabletop simulations will be conducted in the Duke School of Nursing’s Center for Nursing Discovery.

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