Longitudinal faculty development to improve interprofessional collaboration and practice: a multisite qualitative...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Education
• Teamwork and Collaboration
• Faculty Development

Background:

• Interprofessional (IP) collaboration and effective teamwork in healthcare are inconsistent.
• IP bias, assumptions, and conflicts hinder optimal patient care and outcomes.
• There is a need to understand how faculty development influences IP roles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the influence of a longitudinal faculty development program on participants' interprofessional (IP) roles.
• To understand how the program optimized interprofessional learning and addressed IP biases.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study using constructivist grounded theory.
• Analysis of 52 anonymous narrative responses from 26 participants.
• Longitudinal program over 9 months with 18 sessions for IP faculty/clinician leaders.

Main Results:

• Overarching themes of relationships and relational learning emerged.
• Relational competencies identified at intrapersonal, interpersonal, and systems levels.
• Participants showed decreased biases, increased self-reflection, empathy, and understanding of others' perspectives.

Conclusions:

• The faculty development program fostered relational learning and attitudinal changes.
• Observed meaningful changes in participants, enhancing IP collaboration.
• The program improved IP teamwork and participants' capacity in their IP roles.