title: Preparing rehabilitation healthcare providers in the 21st century: implementation of interprofessional education through an academic-clinical site partnership.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Health profession education programs often struggle with barriers to implementing interprofesssional educational (IPE) initiatives, limiting early and consistent exposure of students to core IPE competencies. Few published reports are available to guide the implementation of IPE programs into practice. This article describes a successful and evolving partnership between an independent university and a tertiary care hospital. The IPE goals of this partnership were to expose students to roles of other disciplines in the complex hospital environment and integrate acute care exposure throughout the Doctor of Physical Therapy and Master of Science in Occupational Therapy curricula.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Faculty and students, patients and families, and occupational and physical therapy clinicians participated in a series of learning activities in an acute care setting involving interprofessional teams of students. Activities included observations of OT and PT clinicians providing standard patient care, practice conducting team patient interviews, and interactive treatment planning sessions conducted live via videoconferencing technology between a patient's hospital room and an academic classroom on the university campus. The activities generally were designed to improve student preparedness for working as part of an interprofessional team in an acute care setting.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Student and clinician feedback support the early development of student IPE competencies, including the appreciation and understanding of professional roles in the team approach to patient care and the development of effective communication skills. The partnership between the academic institution and tertiary care hospital is an effective vehicle to deliver and sustain IPE educational initiatives in the acute care setting. Current and planned IPE curriculum integration are discussed along with a preliminary analysis of IPE outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, University of New England, Portland, ME 04103, USA. msheldon@une.edu
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sheldon
authors.forename: James T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Cavanaugh
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Croninger
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Osgood
authors.forename: Regi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Robnett
authors.forename: Janice
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Seigle
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Simonsen
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008281:Maine; D017145:Models, Educational; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000193:education*; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D026761:Physical Therapy Specialty / Q000193:education*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014495:Universities; D049269:Videoconferencing