Optimizing the Clinical Learning Environment: 5 Pivotal Lessons Learned from a 5 Year Longitudinal Interprofessional Practice and Education Model

To effectively support and optimize interprofessional practice and education, interprofessional faculty and clinical providers need to be purposeful in both the design of the curriculum and clinical learning environment. Design should be longitudinal, rooted in IPEC competencies, inclusive to all disciplines participating and centered on the needs of those served in the clinical environment. Boston University Community Health Alliance of Medical Professionals (BU CHAMPs) was created with funding from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA T0BHP30021) in 2016 to address siloed health professional training and reduce health disparities for underserved populations experiencing chronic disease and social stressors. BU CHAMPs includes a weekly longitudinal interprofessional care clinic (ICC) that incorporates a case-based didactic curriculum that was developed to complement a longitudinal clinical experience for trainees in social work, medicine, physician assistant, and nutrition. In this session, we will share five pivotal lessons learned from our five year experience and how incorporating these lessons contributed toward better education in practice.
Individual interviews, team-based focus groups and post-curriculum surveys identified learning strategies and structural elements that were conducive to a collaborative and patient-centered ICC and highlighted areas to improve. Ongoing quality improvement facilitated curriculum innovations including the development of a longitudinal interprofessional case-based curriculum with faculty guide, simulated standardized patient interactions for learners to teach and practice interprofessional skills and behaviors to support competence when seeing patients in the clinic, and tools to share reflection regarding learnings, team dynamics and patient care. We will discuss the inclusion of faculty development to empower clinical providers or “preceptors” of all disciplines to facilitate didactic sessions and transfer of teaching from academic faculty to interprofessional preceptors. Through discussion of our five major lessons learned we will offer recommendations for how to best build and support optimal interprofessional education and practice in the community setting.