Exploring The Use And Application Of Implementation Science In Health Professions Education Proceedings Of A Workshop

Implementation science bridges the gap between research and medical practice, investigating aspects of practice and pedagogy that make the strategies successful for future use. By introducing and training leaders, faculty, and health workforce researchers in implementation science, health professions education institutions can build capacity for evidence-based practices. The National Academies Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education held a workshop series to introduce the concept of implementation science to health professional educators to consider its potential use in the classroom. Speakers provided a foundation for discussion of the role of implementation science in health professions education and provided methods for educators interested in applying these recommendations to scale. This Proceedings of a Workshop highlights the presentations and discussions that occurred at the workshop.

A pressing challenge in the modern health care system is the gap between education and clinical practice. Emerging technologies have the potential to bridge this gap by creating the kind of team-based learning environments and clinical approaches that are increasingly necessary in the modern health care system both in the United States and around the world. To explore these technologies and their potential for improving education and practice, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop in November 2017. Participants explored effective use of technologies as tools for bridging identified gaps within and between health professions education and practice in order to optimize learning, performance and access in high-, middle-, and low-income areas while ensuring the well-being of the formal and informal health workforce. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The purpose of accreditation is to build a competent health workforce by ensuring the quality of training taking place within those institutions that have met certain criteria. It is the combination of institution or program accreditation with individual licensureâ€"for confirming practitioner competenceâ€"that governments and professions use to reassure the public of the capability of its health workforce. Accreditation offers educational quality assurance to students, governments, ministries, and society. Given the rapid changes in society, health, and health care, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop in April 2016, aimed to explore global shifts in society, health, health care, and education, and their potential effects on general principles of program accreditation across the continuum of health professional education. Participants explored the effect of societal shifts on new and evolving health professional learning opportunities to best ensure quality education is offered by institutions regardless of the program or delivery platform. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

On November 13 and 14, 2018, members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education participated in a joint workshop with affiliates of the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education. The workshop participants explored the intersection of health professions education and practice. Both sectors are working toward the same goal of improving the health of patients and populations, without compromising the mental stability and wellbeing of the workforce or its learners. However, while education and practice have the same goal, there is a need for greater alignment between the sectors to more fully realize these desired outcomes. For example, educators, practitioners, and administrators must learn to adapt and respond to the growing role of technology within a wider context, in order to most effectively apply higher education within health systems. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Continuing education, continuing professional development, and high-value continuing professional development exist along a continuum. Continuing education (CE) often is associated with didactic learning methods, such as lectures and seminars, which take place in auditoriums and classrooms, and is often viewed by health professionals as merely a path to maintaining licensure and certification through the accumulation of credits. Continuing professional development (CPD), in contrast, embraces a wider array of learning formats and methods that are driven by learners. The Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education hosted a workshop in April 2017 to explore the value proposition for CPD. Forum members and workshop participants gathered to learn about innovative CPD programs around the world, to consider the perspectives of those who invest in CPD, and to discuss the business case for CPD. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Every year, the Global Forum undertakes two workshops whose topics are selected by the more than 55 members of the Forum. It was decided in this first year of the Forum's existence that the workshops should lay the foundation for future work of the Forum and the topic that could best provide this base of understanding was "interprofessional education." The first workshop took place August 29-30, 2012, and the second was on November 29-30, 2012. Both workshops focused on linkages between interprofessional education (IPE) and collaborative practice. The difference between them was that Workshop 1 set the stage for defining and understanding IPE while Workshop 2 brought in speakers from around the world to provide living histories of their experience working in and between interprofessional education and interprofessional or collaborative practice. A committee of health professional education experts planned, organized, and conducted a 2-day, interactive public workshop exploring issues related to innovations in health professions education (HPE). The committee involved educators and other innovators of curriculum development and pedagogy and will be drawn from at least four health disciplines. The workshop followed a high-level framework and established an orientation for the future work of the Global Forum on Innovations in Health Professional Education. Interprofessional Education for Collaboration: Learning How to Improve Health from Interprofessional Models Across the Continuum of Education to Practice summarizes the presentations and small group discussions that focused on innovations in five areas of HPE: 1. Curricular innovations - Concentrates on what is being taught to health professions' learners to meet evolving domestic and international needs; 2. Pedagogic innovations - Looks at how the information can be better taught to students and WHERE education can takes place; 3. Cultural elements - Addresses who is being taught by whom as a means of enhancing the effectiveness of the design, development and implementation of interprofessional HPE; 4. Human resources for health - Focuses on how capacity can be innovatively expanded to better ensure an adequate supply and mix of educated health workers based on local needs; and 5. Metrics - Addresses how one measures whether learner assessment and evaluation of educational impact and care delivery systems influence individual and population health.

In April 2015, the Institute of Medicine convened a public workshop to explore recent shifts in the health and health care industry and their implications for health professional education (HPE) and workforce learning. This study serves as a follow-up to the 2009 Lancet Commission report on health professions education for the 21st century and seeks to expand the report's messages beyond medicine, nursing, and public health. Envisioning the Future of Health Professional Education discusses opportunities for new platforms of communication and learning, continuous education of the health workforce, opportunities for team-based care and other types of collaborations, and social accountability of the health professions. This study explores the implications that shifts in health, policy, and the health care industry could have on HPE and workforce learning, identifies learning platforms that could facilitate effective knowledge transfer with improved quality and efficiency, and discusses opportunities for building a global health workforce that understands the role of culture and health literacy in perceptions and approaches to health and disease.

The National Academies Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education hosted a Fall 2022 workshop series to explore the various needs of an aging population and an ideal health workforce with the numbers and skillset to match those needs. Discussions included the composition of the intended health workforce, training requirements for each level of care provider, who would provide the training and education, and in what setting the training would take place. Given these considerations and learner reluctance to work with elder adults, implementation science was introduced as a path forward. Implementation science is the study of methods and strategies that facilitate the use of evidence-based practice and research into regular use by practitioners and policymakers. This proceedings document summarizes workshop discussions.