Speech-Language Pathology/Occupational Therapy Co-Treatment: An Interprofessional Collaborative Care Experience


TTUHSC Interprofessional Practice and Education (IPE) Experience


Title of the Interprofessional Practice and Education Experience

Speech-Language Pathology/Occupational Therapy Co-Treatment: An Interprofessional Collaborative Care Experience


Experience Status

Approved


Approval Date Range

8/1/2023 - 7/2/2025


Criteria for Registering the IPE Experience

  • Involvement of two or more professions.
  • Opportunities to learn about, from, and with one another.
  • Significant interactivity between participants.
  • Teaching and/or learning about interprofessional practice and education is intentionally integrated into the activity. Interprofessional practice and education constructs are targeted with IPE learning objectives are also discussed, trained, reviewed, and/or assessed as part of the learning activity.

Type of IPE Experience

  • Clinical observation and/or professional interview
  • Experiential and/or clinical learning

IPEC Core Competencies Targeted by this IPE Experience

  • Communication: Communicate in a responsive, responsible, respectful, and compassionate manner with team members.
  • Roles and Responsibilities: Use the knowledge of one’s own role and team members’ expertise to address individual and population health outcomes.
  • Teams and Teamwork: Apply values and principles of the science of teamwork to adapt one's own role in a variety of team settings.

Quintuple Aim Strategic Goals Discussed in this IPE Experience

  • Enhancing the experience of care
  • Improving patient and/or population health outcomes

Detailed Description and Purpose of the IPE Experience

A collaborative care approach between speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and occupational therapists (OTs) is a highly effective treatment strategy. Due to the integration of sensory and motor abilities into the development of speech, language, cognitive, and swallowing skills, a natural connection between OTs and SLPs exists. Additionally, both have a common foundation of practice and students from each profession are trained in anatomy, physiology, neurology, illnesses/disease processes, and medical management of disorders. OT practice often prioritizes self-care, work, play, psychosocial function, motor skills, sensory integration, and related functional issues that impact participation in daily activities. SLPs prioritize functions of communication, cognitive ability, oral motor skills, and swallowing ability that allow individuals to participate in daily activities.

The purpose of this interprofessional collaborative care experience is to encourage OT and SLP students to explore common ground, work collaboratively with each other to develop a patient/family centered plan of care and to execute a course of treatment. A collaborative session between disciplines, or co-treatment, allows students from both professions to use their professional skills to address complimentary components of skill development. Successful collaboration allows the patient to also generalize the skills taught within the therapy session into their home, classroom, or daily life. During this collaborative care experience SLP/OT pairs will work together in the TTUHSC Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic to deliver group or individual therapy to children and adults with a variety of speech, language, cognitive, sensory, and/or swallowing impairments. Co-treatment with an OT and SLP student during the regular semesters (fall and spring) is typically 1-3x per week for 12-13 weeks. Co-Treatment in the summer semester typically takes the form of intensive summer therapy programs with daily treatment for 1-2 weeks. Through this type of collaborative care experience, the patient’s outcomes are more easily reached, and skills typically carryover/generalize more quickly so length of treatment is much shorter. This collaborative care experiential learning experience also allows students to gain excitement and enthusiasm about using common underlying principles to enhance treatment outcomes.

Principles of IPE and collaborative care are address in the following ways:
• Role clarification
• Collaborative treatment planning
• Continuity of care
• Shared vocabulary
• Complementary targets
• Behavior management strategies
• Communication with parents/caregivers


Level of IPE Integration

  • 3. Entry-to-Practice Level: Consists of practice-ready learning activities where learners will integrate their interprofessional education and collaborative knowledge and skills in an authentic team-based environment. These activities will have learners actively engaged in team decision-making around patient, family, and/or community care. The desired outcome for activities offered at this level is the development of each IPEC Core Competency to enable a team-based approach.

Attendance or Participation in the IPE Experience

  • Experiential credit - direct clinical contact hours

Frequency of the IPE Experience

  • 03. Quarterly
  • 02. Semesterly
  • Spring semesters - 1-3x per week for 12-13 weeks with additional OT-SLP team prep time
    Summer semester - 2-5 intensive summer therapy programs (2-4x/week for 2-4 weeks for each program session)

Duration and/or Timeline of the IPE Experience

  • 06. greater than 11 hours
  • On-going experiential learning experience offered each semester.

Campus and/or Location of the IPE Experience

  • Clinical or experiential rotation
  • Lubbock

Average Number of Learners Participating in the IPE Experience

  • 01. up to 50
  • Spring - 8 OT Students; 12 SLP Students
    Summer - 15 OT Students; 40 SLP Students

Target Audiences

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Audiences


School of Health Professions Audiences

  • Speech-Language Pathology, MS
  • Occupational Therapy, OTD

School of Medicine Audiences


School of Nursing Audiences


School of Pharmacy Audiences


School of Population and Public Health Audiences


Other

IPE Learning Objectives for the Experience

Values and Ethics

  • VE08. Apply high standards of ethical conduct and quality in contributions to team-based care.
  • VE07. Practice trust, empathy, respect, and compassion with persons, caregivers, health professionals, and populations.
  • VE04. Value diversity, identities, cultures, and differences.
  • VE09. Maintain competence in one’s own profession in order to contribute to interprofessional care.
  • VE01. Promote the values and interests of persons and populations in health care delivery, One Health, and population health initiatives.
  • VE03. Uphold the dignity, privacy, identity, and autonomy of persons while maintaining confidentiality in the delivery of team-based care.
  • VE05. Value the expertise of health professionals and its impacts on team functions and health outcomes.
  • VE06. Collaborate with honesty and integrity while striving for health equity and improvements in health outcomes.

Roles and Responsibilities

  • RR03. Incorporate complementary expertise to meet health needs including the determinants of health.
  • RR02. Collaborate with others within and outside of the health system to improve health outcomes.
  • RR05. Practice cultural humility in interprofessional teamwork.
  • RR01. Include the full scope of knowledge, skills, and attitudes of team members to provide care that is person-centered, safe, cost-effective, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.

Communication

  • C02. Use communication tools, techniques, and technologies to enhance team function, well-being, and health outcomes.
  • C04. Promote common understanding of shared goals.
  • C06. Use constructive feedback to connect, align, and accomplish team goals.
  • C05. Practice active listening that encourages ideas and opinions of other team members.
  • C03. Communicate clearly with authenticity and cultural humility, avoiding discipline-specific terminology.
  • C07. Examine one’s position, power, role, unique experience, expertise, and culture towards improving communication and managing conflicts.

Teams and Teamwork

  • TT04. Use shared leadership practices to support team effectiveness.
  • TT01. Describe evidence-informed processes of team development and team practices.
  • TT03. Practice team reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making.
  • TT05. Apply interprofessional conflict management methods, including identifying conflict cause and addressing divergent perspectives.
  • TT06. Reflect on self and team performance to inform and improve team effectiveness.
  • TT07. Share team accountability for outcomes.

Type of Learner Assessment Administered

  • Formative assessment
  • Self-reflection with facilitated debrief
  • Skills and/or competency assessment
  • Summative assessment

Formal Assessment Protocol used, if Applicable

Type of Program Evaluation Administered

  • Activity feedback/evaluation – from faculty, facilitators, and/or preceptors
  • Activity feedback/evaluation – from learners
  • Facilitated debrief with planning committee

Provide Details on the Potential Sustainability of the IPE Experience

  • Dedicated personnel
  • Dedicated resources
  • Integrated into a course and/or experiential rotation requirements
  • This collaborative care experience has been sustained for many years and has program support including faculty preceptors from both the SLP and OT programs.

Provide Dedicated Funding Sources:

  • Decentralized school or program funding
  • In-kind contributions

Roles of Faculty/Staff in the IPE Experience:

  • Instructors and/or preceptors
  • Mentors
  • Preceptors from both OT and SLP program provide clinical education, supervision, and evaluation.

Additional Information About the IPE Experience, if Necessary

TTUHSC Speech, Language, and Hearing Clinic


IPE Experience Organizer

  • School of Health Professions

Contact Person(s) and Contact Information for the IPE Experience

Carolyn Perry, M.S., CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor of Practice/Director of Clinical Education
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
3601 4th Street STOP 6073
Lubbock, Tx 79430
T 806.743.9057| F 806.743.5670
sarai.granados@ttuhsc.edu