As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact communities all around the globe, the health care systems and providers are stretched; decision-makers are balancing decisions on schools/businesses reopening while preventing further spread by implementing public health measures; and countries and localities have begun vaccination campaigns. All these signify the important and crucial roles that interprofessional teams and networks could play in assisting with tackling this global health and social pandemic.
As communicated before and reported here, IPR.Global through its COVID-19 Taskforce has been active in gathering and analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and in producing and publishing evidence-informed emerging trends and priorities, best practices, and guidance in IPECP for the benefit of our stakeholders.
The IPR.Global is also pleased to announce the release of its new 2021-2024 Strategic Directions. The Strategic Planning Taskforce along with the Steering Committee have been involved throughout the past year to develop and finalize our new Strategic Directions. IPR.Global, as its new vision, will focus on influencing and elevating IPECP research and policy globally through shared expertise and collaboration. In this process, we are looking for emerging and renowned IPECP scholars, educators, leaders, service providers, decision-makers, administrators, service-users, and students from around the globe to join us. If interested, please submit your interest here.
I would like to take this opportunity and thank the Steering Committee, Working Groups, Taskforces, and the broader membership and partners who have contributed, directly and indirectly, to the success of IPR.Global in the past year.
Sincerely,
Hossein Khalili, BScN, MScN, PhD, FNAP Director, UW Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (UW CIPE) University of Wisconsin-Madison Adjunct Research Professor, Western University Co-Founding President, InterprofessionalResearch.Global (IPR.Global) Leadership Team, Interprofessional.Global Program Committee Member, American Interprofessional Health Collaborative (AIHC) Board Member, Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC) Associate Editor, Journal of Interprofessional Care Editorial Board, Health, Interprofessional Practice & Education (HIP&E)
InterprofessionalResearch.Global (IPR.Global), as the Global Network for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) Research, provides global leadership in IPECP research by engaging world-renowned and emerging scholars, leaders, service providers, decision-makers, administrators, service-users, and health and social care students in research collaborations. IPR.Global is committed to facilitating the generation of high-quality, relevant, and contextualized IPECP research that can be understood, used, and implemented by a wide range of stakeholders.
Mission: Leading global network of scholars that fosters and supports evidence-informed knowledge and policy creation and mobilization in interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) through research and partnerships to improve care, learning, health, value and wellness for systems and society.
Vision: Renowned trailblazers influencing and elevating IPECP research and policy globally through shared expertise and collaboration.
Strategic Priorities:
Development
Goal: Grow and sustain communities of practice through responsive leadership, mentorship, and partnership to advance IPECP research and policy.
Discovery
Goal: Explore interprofessional research and policy gaps and unrealized opportunities while critically challenging the status quo to design innovative research projects, processes, and products.
Dissemination and mobilization
Goal: Global mobilization evidence-informed IPECP widely across multiple and diverse contexts.
IPR.Global through the IPECP regional networks serves as a central hub and mobilizer to build connections, leverage capacity, and amplify voices to achieve greater collective impact in local, national, and international communities across the globe. We identify evidence-informed emerging trends and priorities, share best practices, and provide guidance for the benefit of our stakeholders and the communities they serve. To learn more, please check out the IPR.Global 2021-2024 Strategic Directions document, or visit us at https://interprofessionalresearch.global/structure/.
IPR.Global Working Group/Taskforce Membership Application
To fulfill its new Strategic Directions, IPR.Global is looking for new members to join its different Working Groups and Taskforces. We are looking for emerging and renowned IPECP scholars, educators, leaders, service providers, decision-makers, administrators, service-users, and students from cross the globe who are passionate, keen, and visionary in moving the IPECP agenda forward. A minimum commitment of 2-3 hours per month is required. To learn more and apply, please click here.
Preliminary findings from the phase I COVID-19 Impact Survey
In an effort to collect and examine global observations, including experiences and perceptions, regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the planning and delivery of, and policy developments related to, IPECP worldwide, the IPR.Global COVID-19 taskforce developed and disseminated a qualitative-based online longitudinal survey among its membership. The Phase 1 survey received 80 responses, representing over 70 institutions and organizations from over 30 countries across Europe, North and South America, Australia, Asia and Africa. Most respondents were university IPE Leads (32%) followed by IPE teachers/facilitators (24%).
The key Emerging Themes include: abrupt digitalization of IPECP with lack of adequate training and investment; de-prioritization of IPECP with a shift back to essential professional education and services; and rise in interprofessional spirit with a recognition for longer-term adjustments to the new normal. The preliminary results with implications for IPECP pedagogy, research and policy will be published as a short paper in the next few months.
The IPR.Global COVID Taskforce and the Steering Committee would like to thank all the members and institutions/organizations who have participated in the Phase 1 of this longitudinal survey. The beginning of the Phase 3 of the survey (T3) will be announced shortly, please stay tuned.
The IPR.Global Best Research Awards (Barbara F. Brandt Award, Hugh Barr Award, and John H.V. Gilbert Award) recognize interprofessional scholarly works that exemplify excellence in IPECP research/evaluation, academic-practice partnership, and dissertation. The 2020 applications have been reviewed and the Award/s will be presented on October 7th during the 2021 NEXUS Summit.
The Application for 2022-2023 IPR.Global Best Research Awards will be available in early 2022, please visit us at https://interprofessionalresearch.global for future updates.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded everyone of the importance of long-term planning and preparedness. Effective pandemic preparedness requires the engagement of all stakeholders from across the spectrum of care while being aware of the strengths, susceptibilities, and capabilities of the health care system. Identifying gaps in preparedness, determining specific priorities, and developing plans for building and sustaining healthcare delivery while effectively addressing the pandemic and resilience at all levels from the individual, to team, organization, and system is crucial for success.
There is an emergent need to build structures and processes that support resilience among current and future healthcare providers, teams, organizations, and systems. We believe that to prevent from and effectively address such crises in future, a systems-based collaborative approach to developing resilience is required. In response, InterprofessionalResearch.Global (IPR.Global) has recently published a Call to Action paper (along with two global webinars) that provides key direction regarding interprofessional responses to address individual resilience, and support the resilience of healthcare teams, organizations, and systems. To learn more and download the publication, please visit is at: https://interprofessionalresearch.global/resilience-call-to-action/.
Citation: Khalili, H., Lising, D., Gilbert, J. Thistlethwaite, J., Pfeifle, A., Maxwell, B., Başer Kolcu, I., Langlois, S., Najjar, G., MacMillan, Al-Hamdan, Z., K., Schneider, C., Kolcu, G., El-Awaisi, A., Ward, H., Rodrigues, F. J., (2021). Building Resilience in Health Care in the time of COVID-19 through Collaboration – A Call to Action. InterprofessionalResearch.Global. Available at: www.interprofessionalresearch.global
ABSTRACT: The importance of integrating interprofessional collaboration in both healthcare education and delivery is well documented. Interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) has been identified as a potential route to achieve the ‘quadruple aim’ through enhancing collaboration and teamwork among professionals, patients and families. Over the last decade, the number of articles addressing IPECP within the literature has grown significantly, as has the global IPECP representation. While the quality of IPECP evaluative research studies has improved over the years, there is still much to be achieved. According to the InterprofessionalResearch.Global (IPR.Global) Discussion Paper, “the research agenda for IPECP should elevate the process of enquiry by shifting focus from that of program- or project-specific level interrogation to determining the impact of IPECP.” The rigorous design, assessment and evaluation of IPECP initiatives are essential in advancing knowledge in the fields of IPECP. In addition, addressing relevant and clearly articulated research questions, that are underpinned by sound theoretical frameworks and models, employing appropriate and well-designed methodologies, and following sound and rigorous data collection and analysis approaches targeted to identifying the contribution of IPECP to achieving the quadruple aim, WHO’s triple billion targets, Universal Health Coverage and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals are critical.
To further this agenda, this paper presents some examples of applied IPECP theoretical frameworks and research methodologies and discusses their potential contributions to achieving identified global research priorities.
This article is based on a workshop presented by IPR.Global and two of its partners, the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC) and the American Interprofessional Health Collaborative (AIHC) at the Collaborating Across Borders VII (CAB VII) conference in Indiana, USA in October 2019 with a goal of promoting and advancing theory-driven, methodologically rigorous IPECP research.
Facilitators of the workshop also served as co-authors of the paper: Dr. Hossein Khalili, Dr. Anthony Breitbach, Dr. Gail Jensen, Dr. Sharla King, Dr. Barbara Maxwell, Dr. Devin Nickol, Dr. Andrea Pfeifle and Dr. John Gilbert. You can access the paper via this link:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjep.2021.100445.
IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight: Share your IPECP Story with a Global Audience!
To share information and create connections among our community IPR.Global developed a blog in June 2020. It provides a social media-friendly format to share news, events and updates important to the global interprofessional research community. It also provides analytics data to track activity and reach. The blog has had over 4500 page views in the past year. For more information about the blog, contact Dr. Anthony Breitbach: anthony.breitbach@health.slu.edu.
One of the newest features, “IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight” features member/scholars with the goal of inspiring research and potential collaborations. To submit a “Scholar Spotlight”, you can submit1-2 paragraphs on your interests and current work along with a photo through the following link: https://slu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_20mcK3xSaIDaHWt.
Update on IPR.Global INEE Proposal In 2020, the IPR.Global COVID-Taskforce submitted a grant proposal entitled, “Using mixed-methods participatory action research to explore and address the impact of COVID-19 on health professional education around the world” to the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) E-Cubed Research Envelope. The IPR.Global proposal successfully passed two phases of reviews and it was selected as one of the 15 shortlisted proposals, out of 173 proposals, for funding. This year only two proposals were ultimately selected for funding in which our proposal was not one of them.
Despite the final results, being selected as one of the finalists demonstrates a high caliber and relevance of the IPR.Global proposal at a very competitive global stage. On behalf of the IPR.Global, we would like to thank the IPR.Global COVID-Taskforce and our partners for their immense effort putting together the proposal. To learn more about the proposal, please visit the related Shortlist Blog posted by INEE.
