Assessing Interprofessional Interactions of Primary Care Practitioner Trainees

Area of Science:

• Healthcare education
• Interprofessional collaboration
• Patient-centered care

Background:

• The patient-centered medical home model enhances care quality and patient experience.
• Interprofessional healthcare teams face communication challenges due to diverse viewpoints.
• Limited assessment tools exist for graduate-level interprofessional trainees.

Purpose of the Study:

• To construct and evaluate an interprofessional objective structured clinical examination (IPOSCE).
• To assess patient-centered behaviors of nurse practitioner and internal medicine residents.
• To address the need for effective interprofessional training assessments.

Main Methods:

• Developed a two-phase IPOSCE simulation.
• Learners interacted with standardized patients presenting complex cases.
• Learners engaged with standardized interprofessional colleagues delivering challenging lines.

Main Results:

• Trainees found the cases representative of typical outpatient practice.
• Concerns were raised regarding simulation logistics.
• Cases were perceived to present heightened communication challenges compared to usual practice.

Conclusions:

• The IPOSCE workplace simulation effectively assessed resident trainees' communication skills.
• The simulation provided a realistic setting for evaluating interprofessional interactions.
• This assessment method is valuable for interprofessional healthcare education.