Grant: Planning Grants

There is a growing interest in interprofessional care (IPC) as a way to provide and deliver better healthcare. However, it is difficult to evaluate whether this mode of healthcare delivery is better because current tools that are used to measure IPC are limited. Through discussions with key leaders in the area of IPC, it was determined that there are three gaps in the evaluation literature: 1) There does not appear to be any evaluation tool with which healthcare teams may assess and evaluate themselves as an IPC team (as opposed to individual perceptions of certain healthcare professionals); 2) The client/patient perspective does not appear to be included in the development of IPC healthcare team evaluations. If clients/patients are to be included as genuine members of the IPC team, they need to be included in the development of an IPC evaluation tool and; 3) The client/patient does not appear to be considered as a participant in an IPC healthcare team evaluation. A deeper understanding of client/patient healthcare preferences is required to improve quality and services. The purpose of this planning proposal is to host a one-day forum to bring together the IPC community across Canada to form working groups. These working groups will be charged with creating demonstration projects that support the development of an IPC assessment tool for healthcare teams that include clients/patients as part of the healthcare team. There will be a series of pre-forum and forum activities to facilitate this process. Using a concept mapping approach, a primary outcome of this process is to further the development of key demonstration projects within 12 months of the forum.