Skip to Main Content

Interprofessional Education Resources: Home

Evidence-based Practice Resources for the Interprofessional Health Care

Advancement of Interprofessional Education and Team Training at the University of Toledo

To respond to national concerns about patient safety, patient dissatisfaction with their medical experiences, and the rising costs of health care, the University of Toledo Health Science Colleges (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy & HSHS) are collaborating to broaden the traditional education of physicians, nurses and other health professionals through interprofessional education opportunities and exposure to health care team training in a simulated clinical setting. 

The goals of this project are to design effective methods of preparing senior medical, nursing, pharmacy and respiratory therapy students to routinely take part in team exercises in a simulated clinical setting and to explore effective team debriefing methods. This will involve:

Creating a new model for interprofessional collaboration for health care team training

  1. Developing a collaborative interprofessional faculty team
  2.  Involve healthcare students in creating health care team exercises based on a research design that compares debriefing techniques
  3.  Selecting realistic scenarios that are appropriate for the level of education and training
  4.  Identifying evidence-based medicine resources that address; a) the importance of effective health care team functioning as it relates to quality, safety, and cost outcomes of care; b) medical knowledge that is relevant to the patient scenario and, c) knowledge of the characteristics of effective health care teamsDeveloping educational outcome measurements for the team exercises
  5.  Providing faculty development as it relates to team training using simulation and debriefing methods

Research Question:

Does the use of alternative approaches to debriefing techniques in health care team exercises impact learning outcomes and student satisfaction?

Method:

Two multidisciplinary groups of students will participate in identical patient care scenarios in the simulation center. Each session will take one hour and each clinical scenario will be run twice, with a debriefing occurring between the two scenarios. Students will be divided into two groups. One group to “self” debrief, the other to be debriefed by faculty from Medicine and Nursing. There will also be faculty observers for each group exercise from Pharmacy and Health Science and Human Service. The focus of the scenarios – and the debriefing - will be upon team communication and team interactions in a patient emergency situation. The assessments will be “competency-based” and linked with the objectives of the exercise.  

 A preparation meeting for the students and faculty will be held on November 17th, 2009 at 11. 00 am – 1.00 pm. This preparation will include:

  •  Purpose of the exercise
  •  Introduction to the simulator
  •  The case scenario
  •  Evidence- Based Practice resources related to the clinical scenario
  •  Pre-assessment form

Faculty will receive instructions on:

  •  Purpose of the exercise
  •  Faculty role in the exercise
  •  Debriefing techniques
    •  Observation roles
    •  Teaching  styles
    •  Assessment tools

Following the exercise, students, faculty (debrief and observers) will fill out a post- assessment form. The scenarios will be recorded. The recordings will be used for assessment of team performance and for presentations of the study. The debriefing exercises will be audio/video recorded and reviewed.

Students and faculty will sign “Consent to Participate” forms.

Acknowledgements

A special thank you to Misa Mi, Medical Librarian for originally authoring this guide, to Bridget Faricy-Beredo for curating it, and Janice Flahiff for suggesting links.