Fostering interprofessional practice and education across Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Services (CHQHHS): A statewide paediatric hospital and health service perspective

Mrs Kristine Kelly1, Ms Claire Costellow1, Ms Tania Hobson1

1Children’s Health Queensland Hospital And Health Service, Brisbane, Australia

Background:  Interprofessional Practice (IPP) and education (IPE) has been identified as a key strategy to enhance quality of care, consumer satisfaction and system efficiency by establishing connections between patients and health professionals that cut across services, providers and settings¹².  To fully realise these benefits, CHQHSS committed to fostering IPP/ IPE through execution of a 5-year strategy from 2019 to 2024.

Method:  Through executive sponsorship by the Executive Director of Allied Health, an interprofessional working group (IPWG) of champions was convened in 2018. The IPWG developed an organisation-wide strategy and 5-year implementation roadmap commencing 2019, (across three phased horizons), to intentionally foster and expand IPP/IPE offerings.  An evaluation framework was developed to ensure consistent longitudinal monitoring of effectiveness including measurement  of organisational outputs and evaluation of the time-scale for change by mapping IPP/IPE activities and executing the Interprofessional Collaborative Organisation Map and Preparedness Assessment (IP-COMPASS)³.  Organisational measures were performed pre-implementation and repeated across horizons.

Results: Mapping showed significant increase in IPP/IPE activities, structures and processes. Improvement across all domains of IP-COMPASS from pre-strategy measures to the current phase/horizon was shown.  Preliminary data demonstrates significant improvement  across IP-COMPASS constructs: Commitment to IPP; Structures and support for IPP; Commitment to IPE & Systems and supports for IPE .

Conclusion:  Findings suggest successful implementation of the strategy and road map has fostered IPE/IPP activity across CHQHHS.  Ongoing evaluation across the final horizon will continue to inform the success of the strategy.

  1. WHO study group on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice and Baker, Peter G. (2010) Framework for action on interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organisation Press .
  2. Thistlewaite 2012. Interprofessional education: a review of context, learning and research agenda.  Medical Education. 46:  58-70.
  3. Parker & Oandasan Interprofessional Collaborative Organization Map and Preparedness Assessment-IP-COMPASS.  Toronto: 2012.

Biography:

Having a background as a physiotherapist, Kris Kelly has worked in allied health workforce planning, development and training for the past 4 years including development the interprofessional practice and education portfolio for Children’s health in Queensland.  She has previously worked extensively in pre-entry allied health, championing the introduction of simulation-based learning and interprofessional education in paediatrics for allied health professionals throughout Queensland.

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