Development and Evaluation of an Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Module for the Tracheostomy Procedure for Improved Patient Care

The Interprofesional collaborative practice (IPCP) is the need of the hour for improved patient care. The procedure of tracheotomy is a life saving procedure and the implementation of the Interprofessional collaborative practice module for the same comprising of the ENT surgeon, Physiotherapist, Nursing staff, OT and Trauma technician decreases the number of complications. This study was carried out to develop and evaluate the Interprofessional collaborative practice module for Tracheostomy. The project has been carried out as a prospective before and after study with the departments of ENT, nursing and Allied health sciences. The facilitators were from the above departments.They were sensitized and developed the Interprofessional education (IPE team),which then collaborated to develop the IPCP module.This IPE team after faculty meetings developed the module with learning objectives, teaching learning methods and methods of assessment. Standardized Readiness scale for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS), was adopted for the module. The questionnaires for assessment and the module were structured and validated.The template of reflection was compiled for the execution of the module. The students training comprised of the demonstration session, baseline Team OSCE, practice sessions and the final Team OSCE. The baseline and final Team OSCE scores,reflections and RIPLS scores were compared. Team OSCE scores baseline vs Final for IPCP competencies i.e. Competency 1—Values and Ethics for Interprofessional Practice, Competency 2—Roles and Responsibilities, Competency 3—Interprofessional Communication, Competency 4—Teams and Teamwork during Pretracheostomy (PreT),Tracheostomy(T) and PostTracheostomy (PostT) were calculated. Faculty observations: TOSCE scores (pre T/T/postT) significantly improved for all the four IPCP competencies (p < 0.001). Self evaluation did not get any significant improvements in PreT and T but significant improvement (P < 0.001) in competency 2 for Post T. Peer evaluation there was significant improvement for the competencies 1 & 2 and overall as well (p < 0.001) during preT, competency 2 during T and competency 2, 3, 4 during PostT. The reflections had a highly significant change from baseline to final (p < 0.001).On final evaluation for the Readiness scale for Interprofessional learning the faculties and students had significant changes in opinions in all the items of the readiness scale (p < 0.05). The project was able to achieve a motivated IPE team which could successfully structure and effectively conduct the IPCP module for the procedure of tracheostomy.