The ACT Health inter-professional learning project Inter-professional learning: an international perspective A/Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite Ms Jo Travaglia Centre for Clinical Governance Research, University of New South Wales 31 January 2006 For participating members of the Executive Management Group of the IPL project, ACT Health: Ms Karen Murphy Adjunct Professor Jenny Beutel Ms Belinda O’Sullivan Dr Mary-Ann Ryall A/Professor Ruth Foxwell

Agenda for this morning WhatCovers Presentation Issues about IPL across ACT Health, and in international context Questions and answers Participants’ interests and issues Post-presentation discussion Three questions. What: (a) might be the implications for the College and its members? (b) are the implications for ACT Health and the ACT Tertiary education providers? (c) input into the next stages would participants care to provide? Final comments Conclusion and closure

To begin … Inter-professional learning is defined as: “a collaborative, interdisciplinary education and learning process designed to produce effective, multidisciplinary patient centred care.” It emerges from work, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom [eg, at Universities of Southampton and Portsmouth, with Prof Debra Humphris]

To begin … ACT Health’s IPL project aims to: Engage with key stakeholders Present emerging findings from the project Obtain input into the IPL framework Identify the concept of the IPL network to carry the project forward

To begin … What are the problems that IPL is designed to solve? Workforce shortages Professional sub-cultures and silos Barriers to teamwork Increasingly complex patient groups requiring inter-and multi-disciplinary responses Pressure for new models of care

Where we started - literature review Total of 62,436 references Refined to 37,812 useful references Available as a document: Inter- professional learning and clinical education : an annotated list of the literature Beware: it’s 10,945 pages of 10pt text

Literature review Further reduced to 3,765 key documents – aiming at the most important and valuable research- based literature Literature analysed by researchers; Inter-professional Learning Project Reference Group; Leximancer content analysis software tool

Literature review Main document produced: Inter- professional learning and clinical education: an overview of the literature Four background discussion documents on the ACT Health website: #1: the governance and value of inter-professional learning and practice #2: inter-professional practice #3: inter-professional relations #4: clinical education and placements.

Key themes from the literature 1.Governance and value of IPL IPL an emerging issue, and becoming increasingly important Widely supported internationally Multiple benefits [communication, patient outcomes improved] Disadvantages: identity of professionals, lack of evidence of effectiveness, governance difficult

Key themes from the literature 2.Inter-professional practice IPL related to increasing competence beyond individual professions Expands range of ideas, practices, issues, perspectives professionals are exposed to Teaches team skills Helps translate learning into practice

Key themes from the literature 3.Inter-professional relations IPL an antidote to working in ‘silos’ Improves the capacity and actuality of collaboration Leads to more emphasis on teams Collaboration and teams in turn are seen as important ingredients in creating safer, higher quality care

Key themes from the literature 4.Clinical education and placements IPL bolsters clinical education in many ways It can bridge the twin areas responsible for delivering well trained clinical professionals: the education and health sectors IPL placements help create more collaborative workforces

A broad timeframe for the future Short term: to enhance teamwork and collaboration amongst educational faculty and learners associated with ACT Health, and teams, units and services within the jurisdiction of ACT Health Medium term: to encourage widespread collaborative practices and patient centred care throughout ACT Health Long term: to contribute to improved safety, quality, morale and outcomes for patients, staff and students across ACT Health facilities and services

Discussion IPL seems destined to emerge – and rightly so, as the benefits outweigh the disadvantages for most commentators ACT Health is leading Australia in this initiative The next stage is to operationalise this project, ie, fund and institute it

Discussion As well as doing a literature analysis we have produced a Framework document and an Implementation Plan These are documents which chart the course for IPL across ACT in the future They are also on the ACT Health website

Discussion The Framework document and Implementation Plan cover the following details: A statement of principles about IPL Specifications of IPL’s purpose and importance A mission statement for IPL across ACT A stakeholder analysis

Discussion Continued: The major goals of IPL for ACT Health Some high-level performance indicators across time An analysis of barriers to progress Ways to overcome these Some discussion of change management models and enablers to chart the journey from now to a more IPL-oriented ACT

Next steps We are also developing an ARC Linkage grant application This will help us undertake prospective, evidence-based analysis of our progress with IPL And provide strong data along the way to support implementation

Conclusion: where to from here? How it might end up

Conclusion: where to from here? How we want it to end up

Audience discussion General questions? Questions to reflect on: What (a) might be the implications for the College and its members? (b) are the implications for ACT Health and the ACT Tertiary education providers? (c) input into the next stages would participants care to provide?

Closure We are at the dawn of a new era