Objective 4: Key Steps in Planning an IPE Placement
As an IPE Coordinator, you will take the lead in planning the placement but will liaise with all members of the CLU and the Academic Coordinator, each with their own role in the planning process.
What are the key areas to cover in planning an IPE placement?
- Deciding when to offer the placement
- Selecting the students
- Determining the goals of the placement (see objective 5)
- Planning the program and schedule of student orientation, tutorials, patient shadowing, reflective journaling, student presentation and evaluation (see objective 6)
1. Deciding When to Offer the Placement
The IPE Coordinator and CLU members will identify dates when facilitators and preceptors can offer placements that fit with academic program schedules. IPE placements need to be planned at least 6 months in advance to ensure adequate notice to academic sites.
Students from medicine, nursing (BScN and R.P.N. programs), occupational therapy, physical therapy, chaplaincy, pharmacy, social work, psychology have their placements at different times throughout the year according to their academic calendars. It is therefore not usually possible to schedule placements when students can all be present together.
The IPE Coordinator reviews the placement schedules/dates for each of the professions and, together with the academic coordinators and CLU team, determines a series of IPE placement opportunities throughout the year to maximize the number of students from the various professional programs who will be able to take part in an IPE placement at any one time. Once the IPE placement dates are fixed, then they can be offered at the same time annually, enabling the academic programs to plan ahead in placing their students. The IPE portion of the placement may be determined as, for example, 5 weeks, whereas some students will be on placement for longer periods (eg. 8 weeks).
For student whose placements are synchronous, planning a timetable of IPE activities (introductory tutorial, case based tutorials, IP project) is straight forward. For students with asynchronous placements alternative methods may be used, such as having the introductory tutorial prior to the start of the placement, or as an interactive computer module. Having an ongoing annual series of student IPE activities, such as lunch time IPE In-services for all students on placement is a way of including any students present with one or more clinical teams throughout the year.
IP Placement Planning Worksheet
This worksheet is also available as a PDF.
| Team Members | Student Planning | Learning Objectives | Planning | Teaching and Learning | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identify: IP Facilitators, Clinical Educators, Patients Clinicians, Support Staff | Student Disciplines, University Contacts, Placement schedules, Placement Levels | Collaborative learning objectives- SMART format. Consider both process and outcome oriented goals. | Dates, Rooms, scheduling guest speakers, organizing forms, pre-placement orientation. | Identifying components of the IP Placement. Case based tutorials, shadowing, on-line discussions, etc. | What do you wish to evaluate? Timeline of evaluation, student and CLU member feedback. |
|
Facilitators:
Preceptors:
Patients:
Clinicians: Support Staff:
|
Placement Date:
Students:
University Contacts:
|
By the end of the placement the students will: 1.
2.
3.
4.
|
Dates:
Rooms:
Speakers:
Pre-placement orientation package for students:
Pre-placement in-service for team.
|
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous
Number of formal education sessions:
Core Components:
Identify additional clinicians, if required:
|
Pre-placement evaluation:
Mid-placement feedback:
Post-placement feedback:
|
Placement Schedules
The table below shows placement periods that overlap, allowing IP placement opportunities. For specific dates, please contact the Academic Coordinators for each program.
Academic Year
| Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen’s OT | Level 1, 8 weeks | |||||||||||
| Level 2 | Level 2, 8 weeks | Level 3, 2 x 8 weeks | ||||||||||
| Queen's PT | Level 1, 5 weeks | Level 1, 5 weeks | ||||||||||
| Level 2, 5 weeks | Level 3, 2 x 5 weeks | |||||||||||
| Queen's Nursing | ||||||||||||
| St. Lawrence College Practical Nursing | ||||||||||||
| Queen's Medicine | ||||||||||||
| Respiratory Technology | ||||||||||||
| Social Work | ||||||||||||
| Pastoral Care | ||||||||||||
| Clinical Psychology | ||||||||||||
A Sample IPE Placement Schedule
| IPE Placement Dates Length of IPE placement component- 5 weeks |
Students |
|---|---|
| October/November/December | OT/PT level 2, medicine, pastoral care |
| January/February/March | Nursing, OT/PT level 1, medicine |
| April/May/June | Nursing, medicine, social work, psychology, OT |
| July/August | OT, PT, resp tech, medicine, nursing |
2. Selecting the Students
In selecting your learners consider which professions you would like to include, the number of students and the levels of the learners.
Which professions should we include?
Queen’s University and St Lawrence College students from the following professions are seeking IP placement opportunities: Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Queen’s Nursing, Medicine, St Lawrence College Practical Nursing, Pastoral Care and Clinical Psychology. Students from other educational institutions may also be placed with you, such as from pharmacy, speech/language pathology and respiratory therapy. In some cases the preceptor may not be a member solely of the CLU team; eg the hospital Director of Pastoral Care may supervise a student who is assigned to your team as well as having other areas of work.
How many students are ideal?
Plan a time when at least 3 students are available. This will change with program curriculum changes and you will need to continually update the learner availability. It is optimal to include students from at least three professions. Six or seven is an ideal number to a maximum of 10-12 students. You can consider having more than one student from a profession if an adequate group dialogue can be fostered, but more than 2.
What level of student is best suited to IP Placements?
IPE is started early in a student’s academic program. Students do however need to have a good understanding of their own professional role in order to share experiences with other students on placement, so ideally students will have completed one other clinical placement.
How are students selected for an IPE Placement?
A full description of the IP placement being offered should be provided to the Academic Coordinators including dates, placement type, goals and information about the IP activities. This will enable the academic coordinators to inform students of placement opportunities. The IPE Coordinator may wish to come to a scheduled classroom Clinical Education/Fieldwork session to describe the IP Placement opportunity.
The goal is for all students to eventually have an IP placement. Until this is possible, students will be selected based on their interest, as shown in a letter/statement of interest to the Academic Coordinator to request the placement. Students selected will be committed to the IP goals and activities of the placement in addition to their profession specific goals.