Making it Happen: Development of an Interprofessional Deprescribing Education Program.

Deprescribing is the planned and supervised reduction or discontinuation of medications that may be causing harm or are no longer benefiting a patient. The need for deprescribing to be a routine part of patient care is essential with an aging population and rising prevalence of polypharmacy, which has been associated with increased adverse outcomes, such as falls, hospitalizations, and mortality. Deprescribing is a complex intervention, which requires collaboration between the patient, caregivers, and healthcare providers to adequately support all involved, as well as to ensure medications are not restarted in error. The objective of this article is to describe the stepwise approach to planning and ongoing development of an online, interprofessional deprescribing education program for healthcare providers and students with the goal of enhancing deprescribing practice. There were four main planning and development components: 1) a needs assessment to provide guidance on program design, development, and delivery; 2) a consultative program planning process with an advisory group of stakeholders and patient partners to inform program learning outcomes and content; 3) a core development team for creation of program content; and 4) planning for program evaluation. Based on the stepwise and consultative process, program outcomes were identified, and five modules were developed.