Getting on the same page: an interprofessional common reading program as foundation for patient-centered care

A primary goal of interprofessional education is to produce clinicians who practice collaboratively to provide patient-centered care. This exploratory study evaluated whether students’ attitudes about a literary account of an illness experience endured after a year of professional and clinical education and if students applied lessons learned from a common reading to the delivery of patient centered care. Six focus groups were completed with health professions students and five main themes emerged from the focus group data. Themes include: Seeing family members as stakeholders; Establishing common ground with peers and the larger reason for graduate school; Applying lessons to clinical practice that see the patient as a person; Experiencing an emotional connection with a story and its characters; and Taking alternative perspectives/stepping into the shoes of the patient. Study results are discussed in relation to the interprofessional education literature, with implications for educators and interprofessional curricula also presented. We conclude that a common reading program may provide an effective means for developing health professions students’ knowledge and attitudes in the tenets of patient-centered collaborative care. It has the potential to build community through shared intellectual experience, facilitating meaningful reflection and perspective-taking in interprofessional learners.