The Partnered Learning Project

• Refer to Section 1 (page 11) of the manual for an IPE Leader Business case and Role Description.
  
  
• Refer to Section 2 for the IPE leader responsibilities before, during and after the IPE placement.
  
  
• Section 2 (page 16) offers a checklist of activities that facilitate a successful placement.
  
  
• Sections 1 and 2 contain information relating to the organization of the placement.

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The IPE leader plays both a leadership and an administrative role. Two primary functions for this position are organization and communication. The IPE leader will be required to maintain close connections with clinical teams hosting students on IPE placement, preceptors mentoring the students, and the students themselves, during all phases of the placement.

• The PLP placement design was based upon the structure proposed in the manual Facilitating Interprofessional Clinical Learning. This included key elements such as introductory tutorials, patient-themed tutorials and IPE student presentations. To ‘fit’ the IPE placements into the academic placement schedules of the various disciplines, the IPE leader had to gather and compare information regarding each of the different school and professional stream placement schedules. Section 2 (page 3) of the manual illustrates interprofessional placement schedule overlap. The periods of overlap, which are the opportune periods for scheduling and IPE placement, will vary for each organization.
  
  
• Effective and early communication between key stakeholders proved critical to the organization of the IPE placements. Key stakeholders will likely include:
  • Academic affiliations (universities, colleges)
  • Educators and clinical coordinators on site
  • Potential preceptors
  • Students
  • Clinical teams
    
    

A visual depiction of the multi-party communication process was developed to help all participants better understand the part each played. See IPE Plcmt Communications in Resources.

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• Manual - Section 2 Appendix F (IPE placement program description), Appendix G (IPE placement program overview) and Appendix H (IPE placement presentation overview) are helpful resources that facilitate communication of the IPE placement components.
  
  
• For the initial PLP placements, these resources were used in their original format. Over time, we learned that different stakeholder groups sought different amounts and types of information concerning the placements. Customizing the materials for each of these groups appeared to lead to improved understanding among the target audience members.
  
  
• We adapted the original materials to focus more specifically on the somewhat different information needs of students, preceptors, clinical team members. Three handouts were developed. Refer to Resources:
  • IPE Plcmt Handout – Team
  • IPE Plcmt Handout – Preceptor
  • IPE Plcmt Handout – Student

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• The introduction of IPE placements can initially lead to excitement, coupled with concern and anxiety on the part of clinical team members and preceptors. Experience showed that well planned, face-to-face meetings were the most effective means of reducing anxiety and concerns when IPE placements were being introduced. Subjects addressed at these meetings included the IPE placement goals and objectives, the placement activities and how these related to existing team structures and traditional placements.
  
  
• Individual team characteristics will need to be taken into account. Not all teams have regularly scheduled meetings which can accommodate an IPE placement presentation. When one PLP team did not have regularly scheduled meetings we utilized email and other messaging methods to communicate with team members throughout the placement.
  
  
• Helping stakeholders initially understand what IPE looks like in the practice setting can be difficult. The following strategies were employed to develop a deeper understanding of the IPE goals and concepts, including the concept of learning “from, with and about” other professions:
  • Using the Office of IPE videos that depict IPE tutorials
  • Providing a “Day in the life of an IPE student” scenario
  • Having a former IPE student discuss the benefits of the program

• The IPE placements ranged from 3 to 4 weeks. However, students and facilitators felt longer placements would have been beneficial and increased the learning.
  
  

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• Students from different professional streams and different schools have widely varied placement schedules and learning expectations. It may be useful to have pre-planned several alternative IPE placement activities, including some which are not dependent upon the formation of an interprofessional group that meets in person over a number of weeks. Section 5 of the manual addresses many options for IPE learning.
  
  
• Clinical educators and regular student placement co-ordinators expressed concern about shouldering additional demands of IPE placements, and the need to balance these with discipline specific learning and educational requirements (e.g. completion of a certain number of hours in clinical activities). The IPE leader and co-ordinator will need to consider ways to surface and address these types of stakeholder concerns early in the planning process to avoid having them undermine the program at a later stage.
  


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