Planning and coordination among health-care professionals decrease readmission rates, yet workers have few opportunities to learn interprofessionally to improve transitions of care. An interprofessional readmission review curriculum engaged medical residents, pharmacy residents, nurse practitioner students, early-career nurses, and social work students in a critical analysis of readmissions. Learners (N = 98) participated in a 2 h, collaborative learning session to review health records from a patient readmitted within 30 days of discharge and determine plausible root causes for readmissions. A 5-item post-session survey completed by 83 (85%) evaluated knowledge and perceived competencies in transitions of care before and after participation. Significant improvements (p < .001) occurred in ratings for all five items. Two open-ended questions captured learners' perceptions of understanding and appreciating the roles of other disciplines in the discharge process and importance of interprofessional communication. Several themes emerged including understanding gaps in the discharge process, improving interprofessional collaboration and communication, and paying more attention to discharge documentation. This innovative program helped build essential skills to ensure safe discharges by introducing learners to interprofessional perspectives in analyzing root causes for readmissions, strategies to improve discharge planning, and the value of team-based care.
Keywords: Surveys; collaboration; interdisciplinary; interprofessional education; interprofessional learning; team-based care.