Teaming Can Be Messy. Putting Logic and Order to the Plan with a Comprehensive Logic Model

Transitioning from a grassroots team of interprofessional champions to a comprehensive program of interprofessional education, research, and service during an international pandemic, we were challenged with developing a logic model to bring order to our rapidly evolving interprofessional education (IPE) program. A logic model provides a visual map showing the relationships among resources, activities, outputs, outcomes and impact for a program (CDC, 2018). At the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), IPE activities have been occurring informally as far back as 2012. In 2017 the Office of Interdisciplinary Programs (OIDP)intentionally began to create activities to fulfill the mission to organize, recognize and advocate for faculty/staff and students to pursue interprofessional collaboration in all aspects of healthcare at OUHSC. In 2020 the program grew exponentially, creating the need to measure the impact of IPE. The challenge was synthesizing a massive project across a comprehensive academic health center with various accreditation needs, schedules, initiatives, and constant growth, to form a plan.

For the development of a logic model, the planning phase is necessarily prolonged in order to incorporate a comprehensive scan of the environment with revisions required based on feedback sessions with multiple stakeholders. It is an iterative process which must remain organic during the planning phase to create a logic model that is sufficiently informed at a point in time. Linking the logic model to an evolving campus IPE curriculum is a challenging step that anticipates planned offerings and ideally connects at a detailed level to sufficiently capture desired outcomes. Studying the logic model and IPE program outcomes in action requires a research and evaluation plan that utilizes appropriate methods and instruments to deliver accurate evidence of learning/performance.