After participating in the Week 8 Group Discussion Forum Assignment where you addressed a public health problem, complete this assignment reflecting on your experience. Reflect on the 4 main competencies found in the IPEC document you reviewed in Module/Week 1 titled, “Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: 2016 update” to guide your reflections.
For full credit, ensure you are using complete sentences and appropriate grammar, apply and cite public health competencies to support your answers, and make sure each reply is a minimum of 250 words (1250 words total for the entire assignment).
- Briefly describe the nature of your interprofessional experience project and how you worked with people in your group. Identify the types of people you worked with by providing their background and/or job titles.
- What were the goals of your overall interprofessional experience project and how did your work, as a professional, contribute to reaching the goals or objectives? How were the 4 main competencies listed in the document, “Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: 2016 update” implemented?
- How did the development of relationships between the students in your group, from various backgrounds, facilitate the development of a public health plan? What shared values helped you to accomplish the plan of action?
- Compare/contrast how you as an individual professional might have approached the public health problem as opposed to approaching it in an interprofessional manner? How does/will the interprofessional nature of the approach affect the implementation of public health plan?
Just wing it
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction: Interprofessional collaboration is an essential aspect of healthcare, and as future healthcare professionals, medical college students must learn the competencies necessary to work effectively in interdisciplinary teams. In this assignment, we reflect on our experiences working collaboratively in a public health project and how we applied the four main competencies outlined in the IPEC document to guide our work.
1. The nature of our interprofessional experience project was to address the issue of childhood obesity in our local community. Our group comprised a medical student, a nursing student, a social work student, a nutritionist, and a physical therapist. We worked closely together to assess the prevalence of childhood obesity, identify the contributing factors, and design a comprehensive plan to tackle the problem.
2. The goals of our project were to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity in our community and raise awareness about the importance of healthy lifestyle choices. As a medical student, I contributed to the project by providing insights into the epidemiology of childhood obesity, the health consequences, and evidence-based interventions. The competencies of values/ethics, roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams and teamwork were implemented throughout the project. We worked collaboratively, respected each other’s roles and contributions, communicated effectively, and functioned as a cohesive team.
3. The development of relationships between the students in our group facilitated the development of a public health plan by helping us understand each other’s perspectives, strengths, and limitations. We shared a commitment to addressing the problem of childhood obesity and were motivated to work together towards a common goal. Our shared values of compassion, empathy, and a desire to improve the health of our community helped us accomplish the plan of action.
4. As an individual professional, I might have approached the public health problem of childhood obesity by focusing on medical interventions such as prescribing medications or recommending surgical interventions. However, an interprofessional approach recognizes that the solution to complex health problems requires input from multiple disciplines. The interprofessional nature of our approach allowed us to design a comprehensive plan that considered the social determinants of health and involved various health professionals to address the root causes of the problem. This approach ensures that the plan is more likely to succeed, and there is a greater chance of sustainability.
In conclusion, interprofessional collaboration is essential for effective healthcare, and our experience working on a public health project allowed us to develop the necessary competencies to work collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams. As medical college students, we recognize the importance of interprofessionalism in healthcare delivery and will continue to hone our skills in this area.
