Doherty RF, Knab M, Cahn PS. Getting on the same page: an interprofessional common reading program as foundation for patient-centered care. J Interprof Care. 2018 Jul;32(4):444-451. doi: 10.1080/13561820.2018.1433135. Epub 2018 Feb 20. PMID: 29461137.
Intervention Components (click on component to see a list of all articles that use that intervention): Provider Training/Education, Patient-Centered Medical Home, Quality Improvement/Practice-Wide Intervention,
Intervention Description: common reading program in their first year. 12-16 months later, participate in focus groups discussions
Intervention Results: 5 primary themes - seeing family members as stakeholders, establishing common ground with peers and affirming the larger reason for graduate school, applying lessons from clinical practice that see the parient as a person, experiencing an emotional connections with a story and its characters, taking alternative perspectives/stepping into the shoes of the patient
Conclusion: Story can be a global way to construct meaning. In health care, health professionals must piece together the illness narrative to fully appreciate their client’s illness experience (Clark, 2014; Kleinman, 1988). A common reading program provides a means for helping interprofessional learners construct this narrative. Through shared reading and reflection on a fictional account, health professions students better understand the dimensions of illness, what it means to give and receive care, and the uncertainty of the human condition. This narrative, experiential approach for socializing entering graduate students to the health professions can serve to impart the values of patient-centered care from day one. When implemented in an integrative and comprehensive inter-professional education curriculum, it has the potential to encourage students to embrace the dual identity entailed by interprofessional professionalism. Facilitation of a common reading follows best practices in interprofessional learning by creating and sustaining group culture and role modeling reflection, values, and challenges to stereotypes (Barr, 2013; Bridges, Davidson, Odegard, Maki, & Tomkowiak, 2011; Carpenter & Dickerson, 2016; Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016; Institute of Medicine, 2015; Oandasan & Reeves, 2005). Although no known studies to date have evaluated the staying power of common reading programs, our findings mirror research in liberal arts education that suggest first-year seminars are best practice in the development of a holistic student, citizen, and lifelong learner (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007; Padgett, Keup, & Pascarella, 2013). A common reading appears to be a relatively low-cost, high-yield interprofessional educational activity that serves to develop health professions students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in patient-centered care. It is easily introduced into educational programs and bridges both uniprofessional and interprofessional learning. A common reading program can curtail typical alignment challenges between programs, timetables, and faculty (Barr, Helme, & D’Avray, 2014) since students complete the reading pre-matriculation and reflect on the reading during program orientation. It facilitates meaningful conversations across a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and translates contexts from academic to clinical education settings along the continuum of learning. A common reading may be an effective and lasting way for educators to establish a patient-centered, perspective-taking approach to care in pre-licensure health professions students. Assigning and facilitating discussion on a common reading imparts the message to students that the institution values the human aspects of care. It is an effective way to foster interprofessionalism and make patient-centered care explicit for novice health professionals. Themes elicited from this research suggest the staying power of this pedagogy in regard to perspective-taking, understanding family as stakeholders, and the importance of seeing the patient as a person. A common reading program allows the learner to engage with an illness narrative, connecting learner to patient and preparing students for collaborative practice.
Study Design: An exploratory case study approach using focus groups and thematic analysis was used to evaluate whether students’ attitudes about a literary account of illness endured a year after clinical and professional education
Setting: MGH Institute of Health Professions, an independent graduate school in Boston, Massachusetts, - second-year students in nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and communication sciences and disorders (i.e., speech-language pathology) entry-level programs .
Population of Focus: second-year students in nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology - second-year students in nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and communication sciences and disorders (i.e., speech-language pathology) entry-level programs .
Sample Size: 316 students from the four participating health professions programs, with representation from nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology . Additionally, 24 students agreed to participate in the focus group discussions, with the four professions represented as follows: nursing (n = 4), occupational therapy (n = 5), physical therapy (n = 8), and speech-language pathology (n = 7) .
Age Range: college students
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