The Tool to Observe the Construction of Knowledge in Interprofessional teams (TOCK-IP) an example with nursing and pharmacy learners

An interprofessional team is required to address comprehensive healthcare needs of people living with mental health conditions in the US. Within interprofessional teams, collaborative decision-making improves patient care quality. This process relies on development of constructive learning behaviors - including sharing of knowledge, exploring divergent opinions, building on team members' ideas, and coming to consensus - that must be taught, practiced, and assessed. Without explicit description of these behaviors, it is difficult to communicate expectations to learners and provide them with formative feedback to support progression. A novel observational assessment tool, Tool for Observing Construction of Knowledge in Interprofessional teams (TOCK-IP), was designed to guide clinical educators' observations and formative assessment of discrete, constructive learning behaviors and to support greater consistency and quality of feedback to learners. Faculty raters applied the TOCK-IP to learner teams in the year-long didactic portion of the interprofessional Doctor of Nursing Psychiatric Mental Health Practitioner/Doctor of Pharmacy program to assess its feasibility and utility in real-use situations. This short report provides the results of this assessment, using feedback from learners and faculty raters. Application of the TOCK-IP was feasible and useful in an interprofessional educational setting.