The effect of learning interprofessional collaboration in health care.

Despite the increasing awareness and need for interprofessional collaboration in health care, only few studies demonstrate its effect. The main purpose of this study is to measure the effect of 'learning to collaborate interprofessionally' on the quality of care for residents of nursing homes. The study is divided into four major parts. The first part is a description of what interprofessional collaboration means and how this skill is taught in educational modules. These interprofessional education modules form the basis of the intervention in this study for this project. The second part is a systematic literature review conducted with the aim to obtain outcomes of interprofessional collaboration as an intervention for chronic geriatric care. Evidence is being searched that may or may not demonstrate the effect of 'learning to collaborate interprofessionally 'on the quality of care and how it is to be measured.In the third part, the aim is to get a description of the existing care (region Antwerp) for residents in nursing homes. The description of the existing care (usual care) is based on the experiences of professionals and residents using focus groups and depth interviews. The description will give us a better idea of how the care is being organized ' interprofessionally' and what the current problems are at work. In the fourth and final part of this project, a pilot for a cluster randomized controlled trial in primary care with one year follow-up is being performed. This experimental study attempts to quantify the effect of interprofessional collaboration as an intervention on the quality of care for residents in a nursing home. This study measures the possible influence of learning to collaborate interprofessionally for professional help providers, the nursing homes and their residents. With SWOT- analyses bottlenecks in interprofessional collaboration will be identified. In addition several outcomes are being registered since the implementation of the ' interprofessional collaboration-intervention'. On residents level a number of indicators are being monitored, for example the fall incidence, quality of life, etc. Also on nursing home level the experiences with 'learning to collaborate interprofessionally' are being registered for example work absenteeism, number of personnel, etc. With this doctoral study project, the aim is to measure the possible influence of learning to collaborate interprofessionally' on the quality of care, expressed in a limited number of outcome parameters and compared with the existing care. The hypothesis is that learning to collaborate interprofessionally can help to increase the quality of care in nursing homes.

Keywords:COMMUNICATION, HEALTH CARE

Disciplines:Public health care, Public health sciences, Public health services, Education systems

Project type:Collaboration project