Background: Veterans Affairs Nursing Academic Partnership (VANAP) nursing faculty work closely with other professionals at a local VA health care system. The purpose of VANAP is to “leverage academic and clinical resources to increase student enrollment, support faculty development, promote innovation in clinical education, develop Veteran-centric education and practice initiatives, and increase the recruitment and retention of VA nurses” (Office of Academic Affiliations, Department of Veterans Affairs, 2013, p. 1). A key component of VANAP is the promotion of interprofessional collaboration to achieve its purpose.
Methods: Nursing, pharmacy, chaplain, psychology, and nutrition educators met together to plan and develop interprofessional case conferences. This plan involved having monthly case conferences which included educators and students/trainees from each discipline. At the meeting, students/trainees from a designated discipline presented a real-life veteran case and facilitated discussion, with every discipline facilitating one meeting. The students/trainees were responsible for selecting a case based on their experience and sending the case to other students/trainees from the other disciplines, to review before the meeting. The topics included pain management, admission, safety, discharge, and end-of-life. Students were asked to complete a questionnaire at the end of the five meetings.
Results: Twelve senior-level nursing students participated in the case conferences with six students responding to the questionnaire. All of the nursing students who responded agreed that participating in the case conferences gave them a better understanding of the multidisciplinary needs of caring for veterans and the unique roles of the interdisciplinary team members. They also agreed that as a result of the case conferences they would more likely consult other disciplines in their future care of veterans. Feedback also included the need for structured questions to guide the discussion and support interprofessional communication.
Conclusion: Interprofessional case conferences with students/trainees can provide an excellent opportunity for exposure to other disciplines. Limitations of this project included a lack of feedback from other professions, and a lack of involvement from all members of the interprofessional team. Future work will include coordinated times to include medicine, social work, and other professionals as part of the case conferences. Engaging in interprofessional case conferences during the formative time of education allows students/trainees to learn about and with one another to improve patient care and sets a framework and expectation of collaboration for future practice and a creation of a healthy work environment.