Patient-centered care and interprofessional collaboration in medical resident education: Where we stand and where we need to go

Patient centered care (PCC) and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) remain important goals for all healthcare systems. While these tenets are a cornerstone of training for nursing and allied health professionals (AHPs), their role in internal medicine resident (IMR) training is unstructured and limited. We performed a narrative review to answer two questions, firstly ‘what is known about the attitudes and behaviors of internal medicine (IM) physicians and trainees with respect to PCC and IPC and how does this compare to AHPs?’ and secondly, ‘what evidence based interventions have been trialed to promote PCC and IPC in medical training?’ We searched databases including Cochrane, Medline, Embase, CINAHL and MedPortal. We reviewed 102 publications and found that medical residents tend to value PCC less than non-physician trainees. Hierarchical professional attitudes and a poor understanding of AHP roles are barriers to IPC, whereas diminished time for direct patient care, neglect of the patient’s context and social determinants of health, and lack of self-reflection are barriers to PCC. Published educational interventions for IMRs and AHPs have included classroom sessions, structured ward- and clinic-based interprofessional (IP) work, post-discharge care, home visits, and reflective practice. Interventions were evaluated using questionnaires/surveys, focus groups, tests, primary outcome assessments and ethnographic analysis. The most promising interventions are those that allow learners time for multidisciplinary observation, holistic patient assessments, engagement in care transitions and reflective practice. Based on the review findings we have made recommendations for integration of IPC and PCC training into IMR curricula. Future educational interventions should allow IMR observerships in a multidisciplinary team, introduce residents to the patient’s environment through home visits, incorporate patient/family perspectives in care, and include narrative reflections as part of professional development. Based on our findings and recommendations, these experiences can provide IMRs with much-needed exposure to collaborative, patient-centric care early in postgraduate training.