Course Facilitators: Sarah-Lynn Dunlop, RPhT (CTS Canadian Career College); Alyssa Stevenson, RPh (Algonquin Careers Academy); Lilian Hoang, BScH, MSc, PharmD Candidate (CTS Canadian Career College) Dr. Dan Warnock, B.H.K., B.Sc., D.C. (CTS Canadian Career College) Rachel Cotter, RN (CTS Canadian Career College) Vanessa Fortier, BScN, RN (CTS Canadian Career College) Course Administrator: Amanda Carvalho, BA, MA (CTS Canadian Career College) Course Length: 9 weeks (October 20, 2014 to December 21, 2014): Course access: CTS Canadian Career College's elearning website: https://elearning.ctsccc.com/course/view.php?id=16 Course Description: Every health care professional develops an abundance of expertise in one definitive area. From physician to pharmacy technician, all health care providers assume vital roles in ensuring a superior quality of life for the public whom they serve. Though the roles of health care professionals host diverse scopes of practice, the necessity for effective communication among those who make up the Canadian health care system cannot be ignored. Based on research evidence indicating that strong interprofessional collaboration and teamwork lead to enhanced health outcomes for patients, this course will provide you with a chance to hone the skills needed to communicate effectively with those from other health care professions. More specifically, you will examine the competencies of effective interprofessional collaboration outlined by the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative's National Interprofessional Competency Framework and you will learn to apply these competencies in future professional practice. To further promote interprofessional collaboration, course activities are predominantly team-based. You will work with students from various health sciences programs to discuss content and case studies regarding effective communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution. Through this team-based approach, you will gain valuable experience working with a diverse group of peers with different frames of reference, schedules, and perspectives on healthcare. Ultimately, through discussion and debate, you will learn to make decisions together to provide patient-centred care.
Course Objectives: Examine the value of interprofessional collaboration in the Canadian health care system; Learn what it means to effectively collaborate within the diverse Canadian health care landscape; Engage in reflective practice that will lead to better judgments in various situations; Learn about the roles of different health professionals; Discover effective interprofessional conflict resolution skills; Gain necessary and effective knowledge and communication skills to be used in a clinical setting. Course Format: This course is online and asynchronous in nature; there are no live classes to attend. Students are responsible for completing the activities for a given week or module, before the listed deadlines. The course will be facilitated primarily through collaboration/discussion forums, wherein students will interact with their peers and facilitators to engage with the coursework. Because students are working together, each team member will be expected to be an equal contributor in the collaboration forums. Students may choose to use the live chat feature available on the course homepage to collaborate with others in real-time. Scheduling of these live chats is at the discretion of the student, as this is not a compulsory requirement. Course Schedule: Dates Week 1: October 20 to October 26 Week 2: October 27 to November 2 Week 3: November 3 to November 9 Week 4: November 10 to November 16 Week 5: November 17 to November 23 Week 6: November 24 to November 30 Week 7: December 1 to December 7 Week 8: December 8 to December 14 Week 9: December 15 to December 21 Module Title Introduction to Interprofessional Education and Collaboration Role Clarification - Part 1 Role Clarification - Part 2 Team Functioning Communication Conflict Resolution Team Care Plan - Part 1 Team Care Plan - Part 2 Team Reflection
Course Work: This online course follows a modular approach, wherein students will be required to complete a set of tasks each week. These include: examining weekly objectives reviewing weekly lesson content (available online at the beginning of each module) completing learning exercises participating in the weekly collaboration forums completing activities within the given deadline dates (Note: this is imperative in order to progress in each lesson) Course Evaluation: Course Participation* 90% (10% x 9 weeks) Team Care Plan 10% *Course participation is mandatory. To receive 90%, all weekly tasks must be completed. Students will not receive a complete for the course unless all course exercises are completed. Assignment Descriptions: Course Pre-Assessment: This quiz serves two important functions in this course: 1. Through completion of a preliminary knowledge and skills assessment prior to the start of this course, the course material will be optimized to maximize your learning. 2. Answers submitted on this pre-assessment will help you in completing the course closing test and the final discussion forum at the end of this course. Learning Activities: These quizzes will help you assess your understanding of the content from the weekly lessons. These learning activities are for you benefit only and can be taken as many times as needed for you to engage with the content. Discussion/Collaboration Forum Tasks: During the course you will be required to participate in weekly discussion/collaboration forum tasks based on the weekly lesson content. These forums tasks will guide you in examining the lesson content, as well as in applying interprofessional competencies to prepare for and complete a cumulative case study. Course Closing Test: During the final week of the course, you will take course closing test that asks you to reflect on the learning you have done throughout the course. You will be asked to answer some of the same questions from your pre-assessment quiz, as well as to reflect on how your understanding has changed. Team Care Plan (10% of final grade): Working together as a team, you will analyze a case study and create a team care plan for your patient. To complete this assignment you will be asked to think about the various needs of your patient, the various professionals that can be of help to your patient,
and how to involve your patient in her own care plan. You will use Google Docs to work on and submit one document as a team. Unlike the other course requirements, this assignment will be graded and worth 10% of your mark. Participation and Expectations: Because of the team-based nature of this course, active and timely participation in all components of this course are crucial. Keep track of deadlines and submit your work in as timely a manner as possible. Starting in week 4, you will work with the same colleagues for the duration of the course. This is a valuable opportunity to explore other viewpoints and ideas, and to rethink your own stance on certain topics. When you do not agree with others' standpoints, remember that how you express your disagreement with an opinion can make the difference between closing a discussion with rudeness and offence, and creating thought-provoking discussion among your colleagues. Strive to engage in discourse that both acknowledges and respects different perspectives while taking this course. Online Forum Participation Guidelines: 1. All forum posts must be respectful of all group members and professions being represented. 2. Students must contribute to the collaboration forums each week in order to satisfy the course requirements. 3. Post your first message of the week as quickly as possible, so that others will have more time to respond to your discussion prompts. The earlier you post, the more time you will have with your group to discuss ideas and to come to an agreement about team assignment submissions. 4. While you should provide sufficient detail in your postings for others to understand your meaning, please try to keep your responses concise. Remember: students are more inclined to read and respond to postings that are thorough in their approaches. (Try for a word count of 100-150 words for each posting.) 5. To say I agree or yes, that s true to another person s postings is not enough to articulate your own opinions. Please ensure that you validate why you agree with someone else. Substantiation in agreement can also give insight to points that the original author may not have thought of! 6. Expressing disagreement with someone else s comments is a great way of gaining insight into other perspectives. Please feel free to express your disagreement with others ways of thinking (while ensuring that your postings are respectful of everyone else s opinions). 7. Don t think that one response to someone else s comments is sufficient. Continuous engagement in a discussion with others will maximize what you learn from a forum! 8. ALL CAPS LOOKS LIKE SHOUTING! (Avoid doing this in our forum discussions, please.) 9. Also, though this is not a professional writing or grammar course, we ask that you abstain from using short forms for words (use you versus u ) and other Internet lingo in your postings. (While LOL refers to the expression laugh out loud, it can also mean lots of love to others.)
10. Names of specific people and places should be omitted from any examples that you provide. If you choose to elaborate on personal experiences, keep them vague by purposely omitting any specifics related to people s identities, employment, or places of origin.