Launching the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education Patient, Family, Community, Caregiver Initiative
Our interdisciplinary student team collaborated to support the launch of the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (NCIPE) Patient, Family, Community, Caregiver (PFCC) Initiative, including a web resource collection that will serve as an accessible source of information for PFCC engagement in interprofessional practice and education. This initiative is aligned with NCIPE’s long-standing commitment to PFCC engagement and is a strategic priority coming out of the Nexus Summit 2020.
Our team completed a literature review and environmental scan of PFCC engagement that resulted in 90 relevant resources including journal articles, reports, books, and organizations. We conducted a theme analysis of the 90 selected resources to evaluate content that most related to the NCIPE Nexus concepts of integrated education and practice learning environments, and then developed 3 key themes for the special collection focused on PFCC engagement within the Nexus Resources Center website: PFCC Involvement in Health Education, PFCC Involvement in Policy, Research, & Planning, and Empowering PFCCs as Members of the Health Care Team. We then mapped resources to each theme, drafted website language, and prepared resources for upload to NCIPE website. Additionally, we sought feedback on the resources and 3 themes from NCIPE leadership and a patient advocate.
The primary audience of the NCIPE website is health providers and health educators. The special website collection focused on PFCC engagement in the Nexus Resource Center will serve to encourage health and educational institutions to evaluate the current extent of PFCC engagement in their organizations and provide resources to help them enhance PFCC engagement. This project has encouraged us to be bold and open to unexpected partnerships when designing solutions to public health challenges. It highlighted the importance of empowering PFCCs as active members of the health care team, and of continuing to center empathy and advocacy as the root of our work.
