Implementation of Novel Simulated Interprofessional Intensive Care Unit Bedside Rounding Course

Background:
Medical schools are beginning to implement courses in Interprofessional Education (IPE) to prepare students for the interprofessional team-based patient care model which is becoming a standard of practice in many healthcare facilities. Students often have little exposure to multidisciplinary rounds prior to residency, and fast paced low-capacity healthcare environments such as operating rooms and intensive care units, necessitate providers be competent and efficient in working within interprofessional teams.

Design:
The University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine (USD SSOM) has developed, and is piloting an innovative, simulation-based ICU bed-side rounding (IBSR) course that is required for interprofessional education. This course uses a custom-designed simulated electronic health record (S-EHR) system, which is a hybrid desktop/web-based application. The desktop functionality employs modern Single Site Browser (SSB) technology.

The activity itself takes place at a simulation center after students have had the opportunity to review the simulated patient’s health records on their own. At the simulation center, healthcare students of different backgrounds complete the simulated ICU rounding with a standardized patient. Students educate one another about their scope of practice, roles and responsibilities, strengths and limitations as well as treatment goals and associated challenges. Students receive a formative assessment based on the clinical aspects of the curriculum. In addition, their IPE skills are assessed with the use of a 360-degree assessment instrument designed to measure core IPE competencies: (1) information sharing, (2) team support, (3) learning, (4) teaching, and (5) role clarity. The course consists of thirty-six two-hour sessions that include a simulation-based encounter followed by a post-activity debriefing.

Results:
The course is currently in the implementation phase and data is being collected. By the time of the presentation, preliminary data will be reported.

Conclusion:
Modern healthcare providers are expected to display proficiency with interprofessional teamwork, and these skills can be taught in the academic setting.

Reflections:
IPE courses need to be tailored to national and international IPE competencies and their effectiveness needs to be assessed with an outcome-based measure. This IBSR-IPE course is an attempt to develop a standardized teaching methodology and assessment instrument that could be used in healthcare education.