The What, Why, When, Where, Who, and How of SITEs

It takes a team to develop a SITE, a team to review a SITE and teams to participate in SITE events! SITEs are all about promoting collaboration and cooperation from their development right through to making improvements. This post provides an overview of SITEs.

By Sheryl Mills and Getahun Lombamo

What is a SITE?

SITE is the acronym for Skills for Interprofessional Team Effectiveness. SITEs are a particular style of IPE event that is centrally coordinated and facilitated through USask Health Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan.

SITEs are developed collaboratively by interprofessional teams. Each member of a Development Team brings a unique perspective. Not only do development teams have members with different ‘professional’ lenses, but team members also bring different perspectives form their roles in the university community. Instructors, faculty, learners, and staff join together to create SITEs.

Each SITE also has a Review Team. The Review Team uses the survey results and anonymized submissions to make recommendations for subsequent offerings.

Why SITEs?

Effective interprofessional teamwork is critical to patient care and safety, and worker well-being. SITEs provide an opportunity for learners from health science programs to practice the professional roles they are preparing for with future colleagues. Every professional program in the Health Sciences has accreditation requirements related to IPE specifically, or teamwork and communication skills more generally. SITEs are designed to provide practice in these areas.

When are SITEs offered?

SITEs are currently offered throughout the Fall and Winter academic terms. We currently run five to six SITEs per academic year. You can find dates and descriptions on the Calendar of Events on the Usask Health Sciences IPE webpage.

 

Where are SITEs offered?

SITEs are currently offered online through our online platform, IPECT. This makes SITEs easily accessible and flexible.

Who are SITEs for?

SITEs are open to health sciences learners interested in practicing their team skills. Although most participants are registered for SITEs by their programs, learners can also voluntarily register for SITEs as professional development.

How are SITEs organized?

SITE events are conducted over two or three weeks, depending on the level of complexity, and are independent in that learners can attend them in any order. Learners can expect to spend approximately two hours per week when they are involved in a SITE event.

Learners attending a SITE discuss and practice team and communication skills in small interprofessional teams of three to four as they work through a clinical scenario or case. The emphasis is on teamwork.

SITEs are low-fidelity simulations. They have a standardized format based on the experiential learning cycle.

SITEs follow a rhythm of the following these four steps:

  1. Preparation. Learners get ready by becoming familiar with the resources that will help them be successful in the activities they do with their colleagues. Resources highlight communication strategies, teamwork practices, reflective tools, and conceptual frameworks. It is assumed that learners will come with the clinical knowledge they need from their work in their individual programs. Step 1 establishes a common language.
  2. Participation. Small teams of three to four learners from different professions meet to address their team tasks together. Tasks have included the following:
    • Team-focused skill practice. Discussion of effective teams, communication approaches that are beneficial to teamwork, and strategies that contribute to team effectiveness.
    • Teams working through a clinical scenario or case to practice these team skills. The clinical scenario or case is secondary to the practice of team skills. We only use the clinical case or scenario to practice the team skills.
  3. Team reflection. Teams are provided with reflective questions to guide the debrief of their shared learning experience.
  4. Individual reflective practice. This component is essential for the development of team and communication skills. Learners are guided through a reflective practice framework to complete the event; an event cannot be completed without completing the individual reflective practice activities.

If you are interested in getting involved in the development or review of SITEs, please reach out to the IPE Team in USask Health Sciences. It truly does take a team!