Evaluating Perceived Barriers and Challenges to Interprofessional Education and Practices Amongst Rural Health Care Providers: a Focus Group Approach

Abstract

Objectives: To facilitate a discussion among various healthcare professionals about the facets of interprofessionalism that occur, or do not occur, in a rural acute healthcare setting, and how interprofessionalism could be integrated into the facility’s current healthcare professional student programs. Methods: A focus group was conducted with 8 participants lasting about 45 minutes. Participants were one of three different professions (nurse, medical doctor, or pharmacist) and included administrators as well as staff employees. Six questions were discussed among participants and the answers from each participant were scripted onto a word document. This document was thematically analyzed and compared and contrasted to a previous study, which asked the same six questions in a different rural acute healthcare site. Results: The main findings of this study were that workforce shortage, lack of computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and lack of a uniformity throughout the hospital affected interprofessional practice, learning, and education. Conclusions: Perceived barriers of interprofessional practice at Canyon Vista Medical Center included: poor communication, understaffing, lack of a unified, computerized EHR throughout the hospital, and unclear policies. Some proposed ways to overcome these barriers include having a full staff, creating a unified electronic health record (EHR) system, offering interprofessional learning opportunities, and providing employees the opportunity to gain experience in departments other than their own.