Achieving effective interprofessional practice between speech and language therapists and teachers: An epistemological perspective

Interprofessional practice between speech and language therapists and teachers involve sharing knowledge and experiences to achieve a common goal of improving child outcomes. Although interprofessional practice has widespread support from both disciplines, it is not always easily implemented in day-to-day practice and numerous challenges have been documented. This study attempts to address these challenges through an epistemological perspective of interprofessional practice between teachers and speech and language therapists. Action research methodology was employed for this inquiry that spanned the duration of a school year. Data analysis placed an explicit focus on the experiences of interprofessional practice between the speech and language therapist and teachers, including an examination of how action was agreed and the processes underpinning collaborative working. An epistemological lens facilitated a more in-depth consideration of the diverse ways of knowing implicit in interprofessional practice and provided guidance on how to overcome the barriers, and realise the potential, of collaboration between speech and language therapists and teachers in daily practice. Four factors, rooted in an epistemological perspective, were generated from the analyses as core tenets of effective interprofessional practice. These included securing a participatory space; actively facilitating power-sharing; balancing the status of practical knowing with propositional knowing and anchoring interprofessional practice in collaboratively designed, practical activities that integrate ways of knowing. The former four factors, and their implications, offer concrete and practical direction for practitioners and educators on how to achieve effective interprofessional practice to help improve child outcomes collaboratively.

Strengths-Based Interprofessional Practice and Education: Transforming Care Through Disruption

This is a conceptual paper proposing a new model of Strengths-Based Interprofessional Practice and Education (SB-IPE), incorporating appreciative inquiry and narrative, and its application to improve health and social care practice and policy for older adults. Within people, families, communities, and teams are people who understand their assets and culture, hold a collective wisdom derived from their individual biographies and shared history, and are deeply invested in their success. This wisdom and experience can be mined for strengths and best practices to improve health and social care for older adults and their families. The conceptual framework of the model and relationship between concepts are explained, reviewing and synthesizing relevant literature on the strengths perspective, interprofessional practice and education, evolution of the patient voice, appreciative inquiry, and narrative to leverage the voices and experiences of older adults, their families, and interprofessional teams. Providing person-, family-, and community-centered health and social care through SB-IPE involves eliciting, listening to, and processing stories and narratives, then coalescing and co-creating person/family/team narratives throughout the trajectory of care. Appreciate inquiry and narrative can be harnessed to imagine an improved experience of care for older adults and their families. Incorporating the potential disruption of the voices and perspectives of older adults and their families offers value for health and social care delivery and policy innovation. Application of the SB-IPE model holds promise for harnessing these voices and collective experiences leading from disruption to transformation of health and social care practice, health professions education, policy, and research.

The Importance of Interprofessional Practice in Family Medicine Residency Education

The practice of family medicine is undergoing rapid transformation, with increasing recognition that family physicians can most effectively meet the needs of individual patients and populations within the context of highly effective interprofessional teams. A substantive evidence base exists to support effective workplace learning by practicing health care teams and learners, much of which has been developed in primary care teaching practices. A strong national consensus now emphasizes the importance of the interprofessional clinical learning environment, including in graduate medical education. Evidence for the impact of improved team function on quadruple aim outcomes is increasingly robust. The World Health Organization, Interprofessional Education Consortium, National Collaborative for Improving the Clinical Learning Environment, and National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education have developed evidence-based approaches and tools for improving interprofessional collaboration to improve important health outcomes in the clinical learning environment. Embracing the practice as the curriculum and preparing our residency graduates to work within high-functioning interprofessional collaborative practice teams, family medicine has the opportunity to lead the way in demonstrating the value of effective interprofessional practice across health care settings, including virtual teaming, to improve the health of the communities we serve, and across the nation.