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I n 2009, the Queen’s University Faculty of Health Sciences Board endorsed a Framework for Inter-professional Education , demonstrating support for interprofessional (IP) education for all health sciences students to prepare them to be collaborators in their future professions. The competency framework outlines a developmental approach to achieving IP competency: exposure, immersion and competence.

In 2010, the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative published a National Interprofessional Competency Framework

identifying six IP competencies for health care providers. In the winter term of 2011 a pilot project named Collaboration in Action

(CIA) was introduced into the curricula seeking to develop the IP competencies of client-centred care, interprofessional communication, role clarification, conflict resolution, collaborative leadership and team functioning at the level of competence within the framework. This initiative was supported by the Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice as well as the School of Nursing and School of Rehabilitation Therapy.

The CIA initiative took 62 students from occupational therapy, physiotherapy and nursing into the community to partner with 15 health care mentors and/or individuals in the community who are affected by health challenges. Students worked together in teams to learn about, and experience, collaborative teamwork by developing a team charter, an IP protocol for gathering information, and priorities for an IP approach to care in consultation.

At the completion of the project, 84 per cent of respondents felt that their participation in CIA increased their knowledge and understanding of interprofessional roles and would positively impact their future clinical practice. In 2012, this initiative will include approximately 172 students from occupational therapy, physiotherapy and nursing and health mentors with a wider range of health challenges. The findings of this innovative teaching and learning opportunity will be published in a 2012 publication of

Academic Quarterly and have been presented at conferences, including Collaborating Across Borders III in Tucson, Arizona, November 2011.

Collaboration in action: achieving

interprofessional competency in education

By Susanne Murphy, Anne O’Riordan, Jo-Anne Peterson, Trisha Parsons, Jeanette Parsons, Debbie Docherty, Bill Meyerman, Margo Paterson - Queen’s University

A research initiative has been in the works that has

engaged Bonny Jung, two OT students in their evidence-based research project, two Health Sciences undergraduate students, and Lorie Shimmell, MSc., OT. The project is focussed on several areas, including: gauging how Canadian occupational therapy programs are currently using reflective journaling activities related to practice education; a critically appraised literature review on this topic; and interviews with student OTs and OT preceptors as to their use of reflective journaling specific to clinical education. Fieldwork coordinators at other Canadian universities may remember being asked about current practices in this regard.

The research group plans to complete these components in April 2012, and we feel very positive to have received acceptance for the abstract submitted to the CAOT Conference 2012 review committee, and look forward to sharing outcomes to date in June in Quebec City via a paper presentation.

Early work highlights that while much has been written by health professional clinical educators about reflective journaling and reflective practice, little has culminated from the work of occupational therapy specifically. We are excited at the prospect of broadening our collective understanding in this area! Please stay tuned!

Reflective journaling in clinical education

By Lori Letts, Assistant Dean and Lorie Shimmell, Professional Practice Coordinator, MScOT Program, School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University