Multidisciplinary educational programs

Multidisciplinary educational programs should be developed for health care personnel about medication error prevention. Because many errors happen when procedures are not followed, this is one area on which to focus through newsletters and in-service training. It also is important for pharmacy staff not just to focus on their own internal errors but also to look at other pharmacies errors and methods of prevention and to learn from them. Organizations such as the ISMP, USP, and many others provide ongoing features to facilitate these reviews in publications such as Hospital Pharmacy, Pharmacy Today, U.S. Pharmacist, and Pharmacy and Therapeutics or newsletters that report on current medication safety issues and offer recommendations for changes. 

The assessment and treatment of autistic disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) requires a multidisciplinary team approach. Initial interventions are largely based on educational programming and behavior management principles, particularly for preschool- and school-aged children and adolescents. Speech therapy is usually essential and physical and occupational therapy are often needed as well. Despite these extensive therapeutic efforts, many children, adolescents, and adults with PDDs remain significantly impaired. Under these conditions, drug treatment is often necessary and appropriate. 

Langford, J. 2012. Safety benefits of older driver training and education programs. Proceedings of the 22nd Canadian Multidisciplinary Road Safety Conference. Banff, Alberta, June 10-13. 

In medicine, not only are members of multidisciplinary teams rarely trained together, but they come from separate disciplines and diverse educational programs (1). Achieving safe patient care that results from the interaction of multidisciplinary teams is difficult to accomplish without adequate understanding of the contributions of each member and the mechanisms that enhance interaction among each other. 

Background. Focused efforts must be taken to educate all customers of the improvement project. Multidisciplinary, multifaceted education is essential. When surveyed, clinicians have reported that short executive summaries or synopses of recommendations and expected benefits are most preferred. Involving the multidisciplinary teams to provide the education to their respective groups also can be very effective. Small group education sessions have been repeatedly shown to be very effective, and should be used to reinforce concepts presented at didactic sessions if large group programs are done. Ideally, one-on-one education should be performed also, because it has been shown to be very effective. - - ... 

Other traditional sites are changing the way that pharmacists see and educate patients. More hospitals are moving to outpatient treatment programs and becoming involved in the multidisciplinary approach to ambulatory care patients, and practice sites for pharmacists are moving from the central pharmacy to walk-in or ambulatory care clinics and even home care teams. These opportunities have allowed pharmacists who traditionally process orders and mix intravenous medi-... 

The Multidisciplinary Approach. At one time, the company physician and occupational health nurse bore the primary responsibility for the health and safety of workers in their workplace. Although that physician-nurse team has expanded to include other disciplines, clinical services are stiU an important part of occupational health and safety programs. Some of the services provided by health care professionals include preemployment physicals, health assessments, and health surveillance through intermittent medical examinations and basic laboratory testing. Health education and counsehng usually falls to occupational health professionals, as do treatment, rehabilitation, and referral. 

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