Utilizing Shared Expertise Across Contexts to Engage in Multi-institutional Interprofessional Scholarship

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education Research
• Interprofessional Collaboration
• Quality Improvement in Education

Background:

• Interprofessional education (IPE) research is expanding but often limited to single institutions and unique assessment tools.
• Comparing pedagogical approaches and assessments across diverse contexts and learner levels is crucial for preparing collaborative health professionals.
• Existing IPE initiatives commonly introduce foundational concepts of professional roles, communication, and collaboration, aligning with Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) competencies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To advance IPE research by fostering collaboration among multiple institutions.
• To improve the educational preparation of "collaborative-ready" health professionals.
• To inform best practices for introductory IPE learning experiences through multi-institutional research.

Main Methods:

• The IPE Research Collaborative (IPE-RC) united researchers from four universities delivering introductory IPE.
• Donabedian's quality improvement (QI) model was adapted to operationalize IPEC competencies within the collaborative research framework.
• A systematic, multi-institutional approach mirroring interprofessional practice was employed to study learning experiences.

Main Results:

• The study demonstrates a systematic approach for multi-institutional research on introductory IPE.
• The application of Donabedian's QI model provided a framework for assessing and improving IPE quality.
• The research facilitates comparison of pedagogical approaches and assessment tools across different contexts and learner levels.

Conclusions:

• Multi-institutional collaboration is essential for robust IPE research.
• A standardized framework, like the QI model, can enhance the comparability and rigor of IPE studies.
• This research provides insights into optimizing introductory IPE for collaborative, person-centered healthcare.