Competency-Based Interprofessional Continuing Education Focusing on Systems Thinking and Health Care Delivery for Health Care Professionals

Introduction: Comprehensive, high-value patient-centered care incorporates many facets of the health care system that are beyond the realm of traditional medical knowledge and/or clinical skills. Methods: We describe a novel, learning program integrating systems-based practice curricula into competency-based interprofessional continuing education curriculum for health care professionals. The program incorporated experiential, team-based learning through the development of quality improvement projects. Presurveys and postsurveys assessed participant knowledge and skills. Mixed-level modeling analysis was used to examine the differences across all participants and each cohort. Results: Across all individuals in all cohorts, postsurvey scores significantly improved (pretest score 2.65) (P # .001). Controlling for cohort year, postsurvey scores increased between cohorts 1 and 2 (B = 0.52; P = .01) and between cohorts 2 and 3 (B = 0.24; P = .15), although increased were nonsignificant. Cohort participants also participated in health systems improvement projects and leveraged improved patient outcomes. Discussion: This project signifies a unique approach to delivering systems-based curricula to interprofessional learners in the health care system. Participants became more engaged in systems change, influenced network-level QI initiatives and improvement projects, and positively influenced patient-centered outcomes. Health systems can model this program by partnering with academic organizations to scale and disseminate best practices.