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The imperative need to train health professions faculty (educators and clinicians) to lead interprofessional education efforts and promote interprofessional team-based care is widely recognized. This need stems from a growing body of research that suggests collaboration improves patient safety and health outcomes. This short report provides an overview of a Train-the-Trainer Interprofessional Team Development Program (T3 Program) that equips faculty leaders with the skills to lead interprofessional education and interprofessional collaborative practice across the learning continuum. We also describe the history, approach, and early outcomes of this innovative program.

Introduction Few interprofessional (IP) learning opportunities are designed specifically for advanced health learners who are early in their training yet have already had some clinical experience. This group of learners requires activities that are didactic based but extend beyond the introductory IP curricula typically geared towards prelicensure students. This highly interactive curriculum aims to fill that gap in the literature. Methods An interprofessional case-writing team created two unfolding video cases—a mother-infant dyad seeking care and an elderly non-English-speaking man experiencing disjointed care—for a large IP event with doctors of nursing practice (DNPs), pharmacy practice, and dental science, masters in social work, and physician assistant (PA) trainees, individualized to learner interest. The team also developed a highly detailed faculty guide, including specific talking points, to assist IP teams of faculty facilitators. Learners were evaluated using a Likert-scale postsession survey and open-ended questions. Qualitative data were analyzed for themes related to the objectives. Results Survey results indicated that learning objectives were met and students were highly satisfied with the overall curriculum. Mean scores for organization, utility, and facilitation effectiveness were all above 4.6 (range: 1–5), with the DNP, pharmacy, and PA students indicating higher levels of satisfaction compared to the other professions. Faculty feedback was very positive, particularly with respect to the faculty guide. Discussion Challenges were concentrated around implementation of the curriculum rather than the curriculum itself. This curriculum can be used with a variety of learners with minimal adaptation of discussion questions.

Background Communication failures in healthcare teams are associated with medical errors and negative health outcomes. These findings have increased emphasis on training future health professionals to work effectively within teams. The Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) communication training model, widely employed to train healthcare teams, has been less commonly used to train student interprofessional teams. The present study reports the effectiveness of a simulation-based interprofessional TeamSTEPPS training in impacting student attitudes, knowledge and skills around interprofessional communication. Methods Three hundred and six fourth-year medical, third-year nursing, second-year pharmacy and second-year physician assistant students took part in a 4 h training that included a 1 h TeamSTEPPS didactic session and three 1 h team simulation and feedback sessions. Students worked in groups balanced by a professional programme in a self-selected focal area (adult acute, paediatric, obstetrics). Preassessments and postassessments were used for examining attitudes, beliefs and reported opportunities to observe or participate in team communication behaviours. Results One hundred and forty-nine students (48.7%) completed the preassessments and postassessments. Significant differences were found for attitudes toward team communication (p Conclusions Effective team communication is important in patient safety. We demonstrate positive attitudinal and knowledge effects in a large-scale interprofessional TeamSTEPPS-based training involving four student professions.

A team-based approach to oral health is critical to addressing the growing caries epidemic. Dental caries is the most common chronic illness of childhood and is a growing public health problem. Untreated, caries can lead to pain, cellulitis, spread of infection, and even death. Dentists and primary care advanced practice registered nurses are ideal practice partners to address this growing public health problem because of their respective foci on patient education, screening, early intervention, and coordination of care. Yet nursing and dental educators have not established effective methods to ensure advanced-practice nurses and dental residents are adequately trained to understand each other's scope of practice and how care for patients can be optimized in collaborative practice. This interprofessional curriculum introduces oral health, growth and development, and principles of interprofessional collaborative practice. It is designed to provide a systematic and pedagogical progression from didactic to clinical experience that allows trainees to learn from each other and apply newly learned skills to practice. Trainees in advanced practice nursing (second-year pediatric nurse practitioner, doctor of nursing practice) or primary care trainees and pediatric dental residents are suited for this three-part curriculum. The curriculum includes an online module, a seminar, and a 4-hour clinical experience. This curriculum was used with a group of pediatric nurse practitioner and pediatric dental residents over the course of 2 months. Common pitfalls included facilitating interprofessional groups of learners, the potential for students to misunderstand the purpose of the experience, and lack of in-depth training for facilitators in the purposes and goals of interprofessional education. Students should be provided with clear explanations of the purpose of the activity and a schedule of activities that includes learning objectives for each module. Trainees should be given adequate time to debrief after each experience to emphasize learning opportunities and allow for self-reflection. Future plans include expanding to include other health professions, conducting more intentional faculty development in interprofessional group facilitation, lengthening the time for the seminar experience, and creating a reciprocal experience in a pediatric primary care setting.

Background: Communication failures in healthcare teams are associated with medical errors and negative health outcomes. These findings have increased emphasis on training future health professionals to work effectively within teams. The Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) communication training model, widely employed to train healthcare teams, has been less commonly used to train student interprofessional teams. The present study reports the effectiveness of a simulation-based interprofessional TeamSTEPPS training in impacting student attitudes, knowledge and skills around interprofessional communication.Methods: Three hundred and six fourth-year medical, third-year nursing, second-year pharmacy and second-year physician assistant students took part in a 4 h training that included a 1 h TeamSTEPPS didactic session and three 1 h team simulation and feedback sessions. Students worked in groups balanced by a professional programme in a self-selected focal area (adult acute, paediatric, obstetrics). Preassessments and postassessments were used for examining attitudes, beliefs and reported opportunities to observe or participate in team communication behaviours.Results: One hundred and forty-nine students (48.7%) completed the preassessments and postassessments. Significant differences were found for attitudes toward team communication (pConclusions: Effective team communication is important in patient safety. We demonstrate positive attitudinal and knowledge effects in a large-scale interprofessional TeamSTEPPS-based training involving four student professions.