Teaching professional teamwork
Workplace silos are a professional byproduct of many organizations. Though physicians, nurses, pharmacists and social workers share the common goal of improving patient outcomes, hospitals and healthcare institutions often fail to break down those silos to allow professionals to work across — and with — other disciplines.
Research shows that coordination and collaboration positively impact patient care and outcomes, and the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) is working with other schools at Binghamton University to spearhead interprofessional education, bringing healthcare professionals together in teams — starting in the classroom.
The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), a national organization that connects healthcare disciplines for better care, was formed in 2009 to advance interprofessional learning opportunities for healthcare professionals. Binghamton University now has IPEC affiliations in the disciplines of pharmacy, nursing and social work.
CCPA Dean Laura Bronstein says the healthcare field is ideal for fostering interprofessional education and collaboration, as social work research demonstrates.
Her local study proves the point. “We did a study at UHS hospitals with a social work intervention to reduce hospitalizations with two phone calls and one home visit within a month, and we had staggering results. Patients need someone to say, ‘Where are your pills? How do you get them? Do you have food?’ All the things that matter.”
Deans Gloria Meredith of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Mario Ortiz of the Decker School of Nursing agree about the importance of modeling this in the classroom.
“Interprofessional education is a requirement of pharmacy schools and a fair number of health-care professionals,” Meredith says. “If you’re a pharmacy student, this is an exciting development because it means, from the day you walk in the door, you’re going to learn how to work in a healthcare team. For us, interprofessional education means learning about, from and with other professionals.”
Ortiz says interprofessional education is required for nursing students because working on teams is one of nine “essentials” — areas of core knowledge — required at the baccalaureate and master’s levels of nursing. Other essentials include patient-centered care, evidence-based practice, patient safety and practice across the lifespan.