Assessment Across Kirkpatrick Levels: The Interprofessional Education Reflection Worksheet

There are many reasons why assessment is critical to healthcare educators, but chief among them is how assessment drives growth and meaningful change in learners. Carefully designed measures and regular performance reflection are transformative for both learners and organizations. Most of the published IPE assessment tools take the form of surveys, which are efficient to deliver and analyze, but lack the benefits of qualitative and thematic findings from guided reflection with open-ended questions.

The co-authors offer an innovative IPE reflective tool along with a sample set of student reflection data demonstrating learner perceptions across all four Kirkpatrick outcome levels, similar to what can be used as evidence for accreditation. Learners across all professions may use this reflection tool following any IPE experience or curriculum series. The worksheet can be found at the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education website: https://nexusipe.org/informing/resource-center/ipe-reflection-worksheet.

The use of this structured reflection worksheet establishes a mindset for continued professional growth and development in interprofessional education and collaborative practice and aligns with the principles of change theory (i.e., making promises regarding future clinical improvement). It also solicits a commitment from learners through a positive intent promise, and this act increases the likelihood of future change. Stated another way, learners set their own expectations for future clinical performance. If educators fail to ask these reflective questions and seek commitment, then the benefits of the training may stop at the end of the IPE experience. Adding this intent step helps to drive application of the newly acquired knowledge, skills, and mindsets in future clinical practice.