Core Competencies of Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) & Medical Improv!

We’ve known for over two decades now, how vital effective and respectful communication, teamwork and leadership are! All involve soft skills that inform our interactions and as I discuss in a recent KevinMD article, can be quite hard to develop and practice.

What are soft skills?

‘Soft’ skills include emotional intelligence, communication, and behavior. Personal and professional development in these areas include, but are not limited to:

Soft Skills & Healthcare Outcomes

Problems with these skills and behaviors can be found at the root of critical issues including Patient Safety, Patient Experience, and Workforce Health!

• Communication, Leadership, and Human Factors are consistently listed as leading root causes of Sentinel Events by the Joint Commission.
• Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey that is used for improving Patient Experience, Quality Control, and increasing revenue is filled with questions that involve staff’s communication skills and ability to form respectful relationships.
• Alarming rates of burnout, suicide and professionals leaving healthcare have roots in staff’s ability to identify and manage feelings, notice them in others, speak up about concerns and set limits, and work in cultures where adequate staffing and respectful communication is the norm.

All of my books to varying degrees make the case for improving emotional intelligence and communication-related behavior because they will help us to improve these outcomes and more.

Imagine what could happen if we break out of silos, create cultures of safety, and communicate effectively and respectfully. Fortunately, the 2010 World Health Organization (WHO)’s “Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education & Collaborative Practice” and the work being done by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) is making great strides in this direction!

Deeper Dive into IPEC Core Competencies

In 2016 IPEC, with their evolving work, listed four Core Competencies under one domain: Interprofessional Collaboration!

1. Values and ethics
2. Roles and responsibilities
3. Interprofessional communication
4. Teams and teamwork

Each of these Core Compentencies have multiple sub competencies that speak to the value of emotional intelligence, communication, and behavior. A a few examples are listed below. As you read through, consider how soft skills figure into developing competence.

1. Values and Ethics

• Develop a trusting relationship with patients, families, and other team members.
• Respect the dignity and privacy of patients while maintaining confidentiality in the delivery of team-based care.
• Work in cooperation with those who receive care, those who provide care, and others who contribute to or support the delivery of prevention and health services and programs.
• Act with honesty and integrity in relationships with patients, families, communities, and other team members.

2. Roles and Responsibilities

• Communicate one’s roles and responsibilities clearly to patients, families, community members, and other professionals.
• Recognize one’s limitations in skills, knowledge, and abilities.
• Communicate with team members to clarify each member’s responsibility in executing components of a treatment plan or public health intervention.
• Forge interdependent relationships with other professions within and outside of the health system to improve care and advance learning.

3. Interprofessional Communication

• Communicate information with patients, families, community members, and health team members in a form that is understandable, avoiding discipline-specific terminology when possible.
• Listen actively, and encourage ideas and opinions of other team members.
• Use respectful language appropriate for a given difficult situation, crucial conversation, or conflict.
• Communicate the importance of teamwork in patient-centered care and population health programs and policies.

4. Teams and Teamwork

• Engage health and other professionals in shared patient-centered and population focused problem-solving.
• Integrate the knowledge and experience of health and other professions to inform health and care decisions, while respecting patient and community values and priorities/preferences for care.
• Share accountability with other professions, patients, and communities for outcomes relevant to prevention and health care.
• Perform effectively on teams and in different team roles in a variety of settings.

Once you appreciate the link between IPEC competencies, soft skills being crucial for healthcare professionals, and critical outcomes, the next question to ask is what effective ways are there to teach these skills and develop these competencies?

Medical Improv as a Teaching Modality

All of the IPEC core and sub competencies listed and more can be developed using expertly facilitated Medical Improv. There are hundreds of experiential activities that can be integrated in to programs that are customized with learning objectives, traditional content lectures, discussion and reflection questions, storytelling and with train the trainer, facilitation practice. Two Medical Improv sample videos with context can be found here!

Last April, Ellen Schnur, Jim Mecir, and I collaborated with Lori Porter, EdD, MBA, RDN, Director, Interprofessional Education and Practice and Director Dietetics Program at Ball State University to design Medical Improv sessions for faculty and students.

We used several sub competencies from #3: Interprofessional Communication to develop objectives and plan activities for student and faculty sessions. The survey statements for each group involved development in 7 areas. 

• Expressive communication skills like confidence and self-awareness. 
• Listening skills like perspective-taking, validating, and observing. 
• Ability to think on one’s feet and develop ideas quickly.
• Empathy levels for others and selves. 
• Communicating in teams and in front of groups.
• Mindfulness and being in the moment. 
• Attitude of respect for all members of the healthcare team.

75-100% from both groups ‘strongly agreed’ in every area! 

To explore many free articles, videos, and more, please check out Medical Improv Events & Resources or learn more about us and/or reach out to me: Beth@bethboynton.com.