An Innovative Approach to Interprofessional Education: Teaching Patient Safety Using Patient Advisors (original) (raw)

2019, Sigma's 30th International Nursing Research Congress

Background: Healthcare educators are to prepare and graduate competent health care professionals who are able to provide safe patient and family-centered care (AACN, 2012). Educating health profession students about patient safety has been a priority since the publication of the "To Err Is Human" report in 1999. Traditionally, teaching health profession students about patient safety involves the use of case studies, simulation scenarios, and clinical activities. An innovative approach to develop and implement interprofessional education (IPE) activities that promote safety is to partner with patient advisors. Involving patients and their families as advisors helps healthcare professionals understand the patient side of healthcare, learn what really matters for the patients and their families, and promote patient engagement in creating a safe patient and familycentered care (AHRQ, 2017). The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) defines a patient advisor as "a person with lived experience as a patient or family member who is collaborating with a healthcare organization and shows success, drive, and interest in improving the patient experience" (McTiernan, 2017). Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop and implement interprofessional education activities in partnership with patient advisors to teach patient safety, to promote awareness of the impact of medical errors on the patient, and to help students meet the Interprofessional Education Collaborative core competencies of roles/responsibilities, communication, and teamwork (IPEC, 2016, p. 10). Methods: In preparation for the IPE workshop, pharmacy and nursing students were required to complete two IHI Open School patient safety courses; PS 100: Introduction to Patient Safety and PS 101: Fundamentals of Patient Safety (IHI, 2016). On the workshop day, students were divided into four groups; each group had a mix of nursing and pharmacy students. The first activity was designed to help students learn about each other's roles and responsibilities. Each group was asked to draw a Venn diagram and write similarities and differences between their roles. The second activity involved two patient safety advisors, who were invited as guests to talk about their experience as patients and to share with the students the patient safety issues that they experienced. Following ▪ Utilization of an activity that promotes students' learning of each other's roles and responsibilities and promotes communication among team members. o Results ▪ Discuss the results of the study o List the impact of the study on education/practice o References