Sustainable interprofessional education programmes: What influences teachers to stay involved?

OCCUPATIONAL roles; MEDICAL school faculty; COLLEGE teacher attitudes; LABOR supply; QUALITATIVE research; PSYCHOSOCIAL factors; EDUCATORS; INTERPROFESSIONAL relations; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; RESEARCH funding; INTERDISCIPLINARY education; THEMATIC analysis; EMPLOYEE retention

Delivery of interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives for pre-licensure students is increasingly the norm in health and social care training programmes. This collaborative form of education relies on teachers from various disciplines joining together to facilitate IPE. When IPE programmes first start, goodwill often prevails and facilitators are keen to take part. But as time goes on, retaining the IPE facilitator workforce is challenging. Research was undertaken to explore the experience of IPE facilitators who were part of a New Zealand university-based ten year old IPE programme. The research used a qualitative survey approach. Responses were received from 29% of all those invited to participate. Closed questions were collated and free-text survey responses analyzed using Template Analysis. Three themes and one integrative theme were identified. Themes include facilitators who are recognized, facilitators who are confident, and facilitators who are inspired. Themes were mediated by macro, meso and micro level forces. The cross-cutting integrative theme showed IPE facilitators experienced individual tipping points, with the potential to influence their continued involvement. These tipping points need to be recognized and addressed by those in senior level positions (macro-governance and meso-management), to ensure IPE facilitators continue and IPE programmes remain sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Interprofessional Care is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)