Interprofessional Leadership Simulation
This project addresses the conference theme of “Innovations in Interprofessional Learning: in Practice and/or Education.” Students who desire leadership positions or in various health administration programs often do not work together until they have graduated and are working in healthcare settings. This is a disadvantage for them when they work in resolving urgent matters within healthcare. Our hope was that students would develop confidence in learning about and from each other, and practicing with each other. They would apply what they learned in their programs in a simulated practice setting.
We proposed graduate students in nursing, public health and social work participate in an online interprofessional leadership simulation which would enable practicing interprofessional competencies. In addition, we hypothesized that those who had more experience, would rate themselves higher on interprofessional abilities compared to those with little or no experience. We also proposed that students would see this simulation as beneficial, or even more so, compared to traditional classroom teaching methods. Lastly, we believed novice participants would rate themselves higher in interprofessional abilities but upon retrospection, would realize areas for improvement.
In this simulation, students practiced administrative concepts to solve an unfolding organizational crisis for a hospital. They were challenged to identify the problem, work as a team while also identifying their own role, propose potential solutions, collaborate with leaders and stakeholders, develop a change plan, implement evidence-based interventions and evaluate their work. They had to present an implementation plan for the organization and the community it served to a simulated hospital chief executive. We believe the outcomes of this promote patient safety, population management and improved health care. Working with other programs allowed us to deliver affordable, high-quality education including interprofessional competencies essential in today’s health care environment.
