Teaming Up for Change: Teamstepps Skills for Interprofessional Learning Across Nine Professions

Teamwork strategies enhance high-performing interprofessional health care teams. TeamSTEPPS, an evidence-based teamwork system, improves patient safety and health outcomes. Previous reports of TeamSTEPPS integration into interprofessional learning (IPL) mostly involve medical and nursing students, as well as licensed professionals in the workplace. A commonly utilized pedagogy is acute care simulation. This training integrates TeamSTEPPS into an IPE foundations curriculum using diverse learning pedagogies to extend applicability beyond acute care.Implementation: Teams consisting of students from athletic training, audiology, dietetics, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, psychology, social work, and speech-language pathology participated in a 3-hour facilitated training on teamwork strategies in health care. Key TeamSTEPPS tools were introduced and applied through team discussions, non-clinical simulations, sports injury role-play, and structured debriefs.Evaluation plan: At the end of training, facilitators guided teams in conducting a sequenced reflection: team debrief, team assessment based on national IPE competencies, and self-assessment to reflect on their contributions to IPL and changes in confidence in skills application. Data were analyzed descriptively. A 5-item IPE composite score was generated (Cronbach’s alpha 0.89). Paired t-test and Cohen’s d were calculated to determine the training’s effect on TeamSTEPPS application.Outcome(s) and significance: 367 students supported by 56 facilitators formed 50 IP teams. The topic was relevant to 98% of students. Confidence in applying various TeamSTEPPS skills increased from 41%-64% to 88%-95%. The mean composite confidence score significantly improved (p< .001) across all professions except for psychology due to too few students. The overall effect size for the entire cohort was large (d=1.49). The mean IPE composite score was 4.65 on a 5-point Likert scale, indicating a positive IPL experience.

Team trainings that utilize TeamSTEPPS strategies are relevant to all health professions learners and should extend beyond acute care settings. Integrating these strategies using different learning pedagogies enhances this framework’s relevance and applicability to prepare collaboration-ready teams.