Baseline assessment of organizational culture in an acute care setting prior to an IPE intervention

[摘要] Purpose- Medical errors are a significant public health problem. Many errors are the result of poor communication between professional healthcare staff and are avoidable. The need exists to educate hospital staff and health professional students on how to effectively communicate and collaborate in an interprofessional setting. Prior to the implementation of an interprofessional education intervention designed to improve communication and collaboration, I conducted a baseline assessment of the organizational culture of the setting where the intervention was conducted. My research questions sought to identify staff knowledge, attitudes and behaviors regarding interprofessional practice. Methods- To measure baseline staff behavior, knowledge and attitudes regarding IPP as well as unit culture, I conducted pre- and mid-intervention unit observations and pre-intervention semi-structured staff interviews. I thematically coded and analyzed the qualitative data through NVivo. Results- Several themes emerged from the data regarding barriers to IPP such as hierarchy, stress and strain, miscommunication, as well as facilitators of IPP such as leadership and teamwork. These themes guided us to obtain a baseline assessment of the organizational culture of the unit, enabling us to tell how the intervention will be received and make recommendations for its continued success.Implications- If the intervention is successful at changing health professionals’ attitudes and behavior, and there is a corresponding reduction in adverse patient events and improvement in patient outcomes, this would support expansion of the model to other hospital units and hospitals, which may have major implications for population health. Potential Uses For Findings- Once results are analyzed, the intervention will be implemented in other UPMC-Presbyterian units. Ongoing program evaluation will be necessary to implement changes in the education, implementation and hospital policy. The continued success of the program will require methodologies to be developed to identify and integrate changes in medical knowledge and clinical practice.

[发布机构] the University of Pittsburgh