Hindsight is 2020: Plan, Perform, Evaluate (P.P.E.) - an Interprofessional Review and Pandemic Playbook
Background:
In light of the response to the ongoing pandemic, 2019-nCoV, our interprofessional student team developed a multi-disciplinary plan to analyze and address best practices in client-centered care after evaluating failed performance indicators across education, public health, infrastructure, and mental health. While hindsight is 20/20, we reference highlighted research to develop a pandemic playbook. This playbook emphasizes measures that we recommend be taken in order to combat future pandemics.
Methods:
A thorough search of the existing literature across disciplines was performed utilizing multiple peer-reviewed sources up to March 2021 to identify scholarly articles for this review. Articles with the potential to be included in the review were identified from reference lists of original and review articles. Selected articles were systematically reviewed by the research team. Weekly discussions occurred between all researchers.
Results:
The result of this review study is a ‘pandemic playbook’, which provides recommendations for addressing future pandemics. Our research team widened the scope of the playbook by giving agency to local government and community organizations. This study used data from state and regional levels that revealed biopsychosocial implications as governments created measures for a pandemic with an indeterminate end. Recommendations within our pandemic playbook attempt to uncover the complexities of pandemic-related measures, while providing clear action items across the aforementioned areas of education, public health, infrastructure, and mental health.
Discussion:
This review study highlights the emerging need for interprofessional, multi-disciplinary solutions to future pandemic scenarios. Future research done by this group will highlight the need (and making the case for its value) for additional interprofessional education and collaborative opportunities in health profession programs.
