International Journal of Healthcare Simulation

Background:

There is increasing recognition of the importance of interprofessional teamwork for enhancing patient care [1]. Undergraduate programmes of education in medicine and nursing are fundamental to developing these skills and interprofessional simulation education (IPSE) has been found to be an effective way of improving decision-making, team cohesiveness, and collaboration [2]. Two Higher Education Institutions in the Northeast of England collaborated on an IPSE event involving 340 final year nursing and medical students. This research aimed to explore the effectiveness of IPSE in improving teamwork and enhancing communication using peer assessment.

Methods:

During a five-day IPSE event in February 2022, each student rotated through four scenarios of acutely deteriorating patients. The students were randomly selected to one of four groups consisting of ~4–6 nursing and 1–2 medical students. Within each scenario 2 nurses and 1 doctor actively participated while the remaining group members observed via live video feed. Across the five days 140 students (41%) completed an amended version of the Performance Assessment for Communication and Teamwork (PACT) novice observer form [3] to rate team functioning on a Likert scale from 1 -5 on five skills domains: Team Structure, Leadership, Situation Monitoring, Mutual Support, and Communication.

Pooled individual ratings and scores between professional groups (nursing and medical) were used to perform repeated measure ANOVAs to explore the impact of repeated scenarios.

Results:

Pooled individual ratings: A statistically significant progressive increase was found in the five teamworking elements: Team Structure (F=9.97, p<.001), Leadership (F=6.71, p=<.001), Situation Monitoring (F=3.56, p=.020), Mutual Support (F=9.67, p<.001), Communication (F=9.85, p<.001).

Professional Group (medical and nursing) ratings: A statistically significant progressive increase was also found: Team Structure (F=9.97, p<.001), Leadership (F=6.71, p<.001), Situation Monitoring (F=9.67, p<.001), Mutual Support (F=9.97, P<.001), Communication (F=9.85, p<.001).

Conclusion:

Using peer assessment to explore team working during IPSE, this study demonstrates a significant increase in scores in the five skills domains. The results suggest that incorporating IPSE into undergraduate medical and nursing curriculums can be an effective way for students to develop and enhance teamworking and communication which is a key component of safe and effective clinical practice and patient care.

References

1. Foronda C, MacWilliams B, McArthur E. Interprofessional communication in healthcare: An integrative review. Nurse education in practice. 2016;19:36–40.

2. Mahmood LS, Mohammed CA, Gilbert JH. Interprofessional simulation education to enhance teamwork and communication skills among medical and nursing undergraduates using the TeamSTEPPS® framework. Medical Journal Armed Forces India. 2021;77:S42–48.

3. Chiu CJ. Development and validation of performance assessment tools for interprofessional communication and teamwork (PACT). Doctoral dissertation. 2014. University of Washington.