Do the doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists and dietitians view their professions as their own entity, or as a collective group as Health Workers?
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BIMKES team consist of students from 7 health majors (www.bimkes.org) |
Interprofessional education occurs when two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. It would enable opportunities for health professions students to engage in interactive learning with those outside their profession as a routine part of their education. The goal of this interprofessional learning is to prepare all health professions students for deliberatively working together with the common goal of building a safer and better patient-centered and community/population oriented Indonesia health care system.
Doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians and midwifes should view their profession as a collective group as Health Workers. This perception is elemental in shaping the working culture in the health industry. In fact, health education students have been isolated, given specific education and inserted with different set of values. There is no or little interaction during the education process. It indicates poor communication, poor collaboration and of course, poor outcomes for the patients.
To overcome that condition, interprofessional education has a very good potential to improve health care system. Research evidence shows that collaborative practice can improve access to and coordination of health-services, appropriate use of specialist clinical resources, health outcomes for people with chronic diseases, patient care and safety. Collaborative practice can decrease total patient complications, length of hospital stay, tension and conflict among caregivers, clinical error rates and mortality rates. In community mental health settings, collaborative practice can increase patient satisfaction, promote greater acceptance of treatment, reduce duration of treatment, reduce cost of care and increase treatment for psychiatric disorders.
Therefore, interprofessional education should be implemented in Indonesia. By learning together to work together, we can create an optimal health care system.
Plan of Action
As a medical student, I have responsibility to succeed interprofessional education. There are three targets of action.
Health Students
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Faculty/University
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Indonesia Ministry of Education
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· Make a discussion with health students to make the same perception and vision about interprofessional education.
· Make a collective project (seminar or scientific competition) as collaborative practice for health students.
The actions are organized cooperatively by BEM at faculties and university level; or CIMSA, ISMKI, ILMKI, PSMKGI etc at national level.
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· Make a meeting with the authorities of faculty or university to deliver students’ vision about interprofessional education.
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· Make a discussion with the Directorate General of Higher Education (Dikti) to deliver health students’ aspirations that:
o Students need an interprofessional education to learn and work together for better health care system.
o Dikti have to arrange and develop curriculum about interprofessional education.
The discussion can be held in annual HPEQ conference.
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References
1. WHO. Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice. Geneva: Department of Human Resources for Health WHO; 2010.
2. Reeves S, Zwarenstein M, Goldman J, Barr H, Freeth D, Hammick M, et al. Interprofessional Education: Effects on Professional Practice and Health Care Outcomes (Review). Willey Publishers: The Cochrane Library; 2009. Issue 4.
3. Bainbridge L, Nasmith L, Orchard C, Wood V. Competencies for Interprofessional Collaboration. Journal of Physical Therapy Education. 2010; 24(1): 6-11.
4. Interprofessional Education Collaborative (American Association of Collages of Nursing, American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, American Dental Education Association, Association of American Medical Colleges, Association of Schools of Public Health). Core Compentencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice. Washington, D.C.: Report of an Expert Panel; 2011.
This essay was one of winners of 2nd High Professional Education and Quality (HPEQ) International Conference in Bali, December 2011.
Delegations with Prof. dr. Menaldi Rasmin, SpP(K) and dr. Sri Linuwih, SpKK(K)