PARA312 - Interprofessional Practice

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

It is a requirement that all healthcare professionals understand interprofessional practice in health care. Health care professionals need to collaborate and communicate effectively to ensure the best outcomes for the patient. This unit considers the legislative and regularly frameworks across the continuum of health care. Extended knowledge in the area of interprofessional practice is essential for the evolving role of the paramedic in primary and extended health care.

In this unit, students will have the opportunity to identify and develop their competencies in interprofessional practice. This unit will examine interprofessional practice at the organisational and professional level and students will critically review a range of strategies which they can use to facilitate successful interprofessional practice. This unit will provide the opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to the profession and the community through the analysis and evaluation of interprofessional practice and the role of the paramedic in delivering safe, ethical and effective health care within the continuum of care.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Describe and examine the legislative and regulatory frameworks in Australia which impact upon interprofessional care; (GA5)

LO2 - Critically analyse the socio-political influences and philosophical approaches which underpin care delivered by different disciplines; (GA2, 5)

LO3 - Critically analyse the professional, ethical and legal decision making processes required by interprofessional practice; (GA3, 4)

LO4 - Critically evaluate a range of strategies which could be implemented to promote interprofessional practice. (GA2, 4, 5, 8)

Graduate attributes

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

CAA Competency Standards:

The Council of Ambulance Authorities Paramedic Professional Competency Standards developed in this unit are: 

Content

Topics will include:

Decision making within interprofessional practice

• Power relationships in the interprofessional context
• Legislative and regulatory frameworks
• Roles within teams

Perspectives on care

• Different Codes of Professional Conduct
• Different concepts of care
• Social, political, financial and cultural influences on care and interprofessional practice

Strategies to implement interprofessional practice

• Advantages and disadvantages of interprofessional practice
• Management of conflict
• Building effective teams in an interprofessional environment

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit is delivered to practising paramedics who generally work rotating shifts. As such the unit is delivered fully online to allow the flexibility required by students who may not be able to attend on campus or in synchronous mode. As students are currently paramedic practitioners, a teaching and learning strategy which places them at the centre by drawing upon their own experiences is adopted to meet the learning needs of this cohort. This unit requires students to undertake 150 hours of focused learning to achieve the unit learning outcomes.

Flexible asynchronous online learner-centred lessons are used to support student learning. There is a particular focus on the construction of knowledge via an online portfolio. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment strategy adopted in this unit builds the depth of student learning by taking a progressive approach to measurement of learning outcomes and graduate attributes. Assessment tasks are sequenced so that students can demonstrate and reflect upon knowledge through a discussion portfolio, assimilate this knowledge by integrating it into an essay and apply this learning within a written assignment. Weighting and sequencing of assessments reflects this progression.

The discussion portfolio enables students to discuss, explore and articulate their ideas gained from the course materials and their previous experience and to demonstrate their depth of knowledge to promote interprofessional practice. The essay enables students to apply values, knowledge, skills and attitudes to interprofessional practice. The written assignment provides the opportunity for students to consolidate knowledge developed throughout the unit and to think critically and reflectively.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Eburn, M. (2013). Emergency law (4th Ed.). Annandale, NSW: The Federation Press

Eisler, R. T., & Potter, T. M. (2014). Transforming interprofessional partnerships. a new Framework for nursing and partnership-based health care. Indianapolis, IN : Sigma Theta Tau International.

Freshman, B., Rubino, L., Reid Chassiakos, Y. (Eds) (2010). Collaboration across the disciplines in health care. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett.

McAuliffe, D. (2014). Interprofessional ethics: collaboration in the social, health and human services. Port Melbourne, VIC. : Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Monrouxe, L. V., & Rees, C. E. (2017). Healthcare professionalism: Improving practice through reflections on workplace dilemmas. Somerset: John Wiley & Sons.

Moyers, P., & Finch-Guthrie, P. (2016). Interprofessional evidence-based practice: A workbook for health professionals. Thorofare: SLACK Incorporated, 2016.

Shardlow, S., & Doel, Mark. (2016). Educating professionals: Practice learning in health and social care. Abingdon: Taylor and Francis.

Spike, J., & Lunstroth, Rebecca. (2016). A casebook in interprofessional ethics: A succinct introduction to ethics for the health professions. (Springer Briefs in Ethics). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Standing, M. (Ed.) (2010). Clinical judgement and decision-making in nursing and interprofessionalhealthcare. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Thomas, J.,Pollard, K.C., & Sellman, D.(Eds.) (2014). Interprofessional working in health and social care: professional perspectives. (2nded.) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.