Interprofessional learning and working – Improving the collaborative experience

1. Interprofessional learning and working – Improving the collaborative experience Dr Alison Machin: Director of Inter-professional Education Sue Spencer: Senior lecturer School of Health Community and Education Studies

2. Background • April 07 – Successful bid for funding to be a phase 2 implementation site in an initiative led by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (NHSI) • Project partners with Northumbria University include: CETL4HealthNE, Newcastle University, North East SHA, North Tyneside PCT and Phase 1 project partner, York St John University • Aim of the NHSI initiative was to embed “service improvement learning” in mainstream professional education programmes and learn from the process of doing so. • Phase 2 had a particular focus on “patient safety”.

3. Service Improvement in the Curriculum Involving users, carers, staff and the public Process and systems thinking Personal and organisational development Making it a habit: initiating, delivering, sustaining and spreading Curriculum should include 4 equally important, interconnected parts of improvement Penny 2003

4. “Fit” with HCES Philosophy and Context • Service user and carer perspective • Inter-professional learning (IPL), to improve collaborative service provision, is a core philosophy of HCES. IPL enables the collaborative exploration of the process of systems improvement • Facility to embed the specific service improvement learning into an existing IPL module and give pre registration students the opportunity to practice service improvement skills • Infrastructure already in place to facilitate this type of initiative

5. Interprofessional learning is defined as: “two or more students from different professional groups learning interactively with, from and about each other in order to promote collaborative working for an improved service user experience” (CAIPE 2009)

6. Patient safety - The IP Challenge “an incident or lived experience arising during contact with health,  social care and  education  services which causes distress or harm (physical, emotional, psychological) to service users and their families” (Machin, Jones and Dawson, 2007).

7. Overview of the Project • Core day – delivered to 420 students from 6 professional groups in semester 1 - focus on the basics of SI learning theory • Following this day, a practice related SI project was undertaken by each student – health, social care and education settings • Project was expected to demonstrate the use of a service improvement tool e.g. Plan Do Study Act (PDSA)

8. Maximising assessment for learning • IPL seminar to gain formative peer and academic feedback on progression of the project • Project was presented and shared in a supportive IPL context and assessed (80%) • Service users & carers, practice partners and academic staff involved in the assessment to provide additional formative feedback • Students undertake short written reflection on their experience of the process including the assessment presentation(max 500 words)(20%)

9. And so to the challenges………..

12. A Question What factors in your own work area would support/ hinder large scale cross programme collaborative activity?

13. How did we do?

14. Service User Evaluation • Interesting, enjoyable, rewarding experience • Impressed by students’ fresh ideas/enthusiasm • Keen to work with the School again • Difficult for people with learning disabilities to be involved but enjoyed being part of the process • Comments on presentation skills, disability knowledge and dress code • Some room for improvement relating to transport, parking, toilets, furniture and length of sessions

15. Organisation outcomes • Further development of collaborative working ethos • Engagement in national improvement network • Opportunity to share with stakeholders our commitment to teaching/ facilitating improvement • Further workforce development funding secured to transpose model to local PCT workforce • New learning re involving service users in assessment • Re energised existing L&T activity • “Assessment for learning” opportunity maximised

16. Some student outcomes (source Tribal (2009) National Project Evaluation Report) • Out of 272 students who responded: • 97% thought service improvement skills were important to their professional role • 74% thought that participating in this module and in service improvement learning would enhance their job prospects • 91% of students would recommend service improvement learning to other students

17. Final reflections….