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. 2021 May;26(2):615-636.
doi: 10.1007/s10459-020-10004-z. Epub 2020 Oct 28.

Interprofessional and multiprofessional approaches in quality improvement education

Joanne Goldman  1   2   3 , Ayelet Kuper  4   5   6 , Cynthia Whitehead  5   7   8 , G Ross Baker  9 , Beverly Bulmer  10   11 , Maitreya Coffey  12   13   14 , Christine Shea  9 , Lianne Jeffs  9   15   16 , Kaveh Shojania  17   4   6 , Brian Wong  17   4   6
Affiliations

Interprofessional and multiprofessional approaches in quality improvement education

Joanne Goldman et al. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 2021 May.

Abstract

The imperative for all healthcare professionals to partake in quality improvement (QI) has resulted in the development of QI education programs with participants from different professional backgrounds. However, there is limited empirical and theoretical examination as to why, when and how interprofessional and multiprofessional education occurs in QI and the outcomes of these approaches. This paper reports on a qualitative collective case study of interprofessional and multiprofessional education in three longitudinal QI education programs. We conducted 58 interviews with learners, QI project coaches, program directors and institutional leads and 135 h of observations of in-class education sessions, and collected relevant documents such as course syllabi and handouts. We used an interpretive thematic analysis using a conventional and directed content analysis approach. In the directed content approach, we used sociology of professions theory with particular attention to professional socialization, hierarchies and boundaries in QI, to understand the ways in which individuals' professional backgrounds informed the planning and experiences of the QI education programs. Findings demonstrated that both interprofessional and multiprofessional education approaches were being used to achieve different education objectives. While each approach demonstrated positive learning and practice outcomes, tensions related to the different ways in which professional groups are engaging in QI, power dynamics between professional groups, and disconnects between curricula and practice existed. Further conceptual clarity is essential for a more informed discussion about interprofessional and multiprofessional education approaches in QI and explicit attention is needed to professional processes and tensions, to optimize the impact of education on practice.

Keywords: Interprofessional education; Medical sociology; Multiprofessional education; Patient safety; Qualitative research; Quality improvement.

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References

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