An emulation model in critical thinking used to develop learning outcomes in inter professional practice

Abstract Interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional practice (IPP) are essential for the comprehensive care of patients. A goal of this paper is to articulate learning outcomes likely to improve patient outcomes. Yet learning outcomes in IPE are “systematically lacking” in consistency. Objective An approach offered here and the main purpose of this paper is to develop and implement an IPE learning outcome by applying emulation concepts from the education literature. In dental situations, emulation has been used to derive the thought process of the expert succinctly enough for the novice to apply to the next patient. Methods The expert's thought process thus becomes the learning outcome, the learning guide, and the assessment instrument. In IPE/IPP, several experts make up the team. The resulting learning outcome is the collection of key questions from respective health care team members. Team members are primary care, pharmacy, nursing, social work, nutrition, and dentistry. The resulting list of questions has not been reported and was applied to patient planning in a geriatric/special needs clinic. Results Students were more likely to apply questions from disciplines that were preceded by didactic instruction—primary care, pharmacy, nutrition, and dentistry—and less likely to apply questions from nursing and social work. Conclusions Although still in the early stages, the model is viable to guide learning and assess performance to a level of grasping the concept. The exercise is student led. For the practitioner, the learning outcome becomes the performance outcome. Further model development is ongoing with limited models for comparison.