Using team-based interprofessional education to enhance student knowledge of healthcare professional roles

Using team-based interprofessional education to enhance student knowledge of healthcare professional roles

Grant:
Investigating Student Learning Grant (ISL)
Academic Year:
2014 - 2015 (June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015)
Funding Requested:
$3,000.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
gsweet
Overview of the Project:
Since the Institute of Medicine first announced the need for all health professionals to be educated in interdisciplinary teams, health professional schools across the country have worked to incorporate interprofessional education (IPE) into their curricula. This January at the University of Michigan we launched a new IPE course that brings together more than 250 students from five health professions to learn about interprofessional collaboration in healthcare. The course is designed to focus on two core competencies for IPE – professional roles and teamwork. This project is specific to assessing the impact of an innovative pedagogy where students teach students about their respective professions on knowledge gained about professional roles, and will use a survey instrument designed by the 11-member faculty team. Data from this project will inform the faculty team and the broader educational community about ways in which this unique pedagogy can be used to expand interprofessional education. In addition, the survey instrument developed by the faculty team is innovative. There are several assessment tools readily available to measure students' attitudes and beliefs about interprofessional education and practice, but no tools that measure learning about professional roles within the healthcare team. If the survey instrument proves to be a valid tool for measuring knowledge improvement in professional roles, it could be of broad interest to other colleges that are developing coursework in IPE in healthcare.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:

This study evaluated whether a pedagogy for collaborative, case-based decision making by interprofessional student teams was effective for teaching roles of healthcare professionals on a team. Pre/post assessments of students' perceptions of the education and training, roles and responsibilities, and likelihood of collaboration were assessed.

Project Achievements:

A large-scale semester course (Team-Based Clinical Decision Making) was taught by a team of 10 faculty from 5 of the health-science schools: pharmacy, dentistry, medicine, nursing, and social work. The course was offered in winter term 2015 and 2016 and enrolled 540 students from these 5 programs. There was a significant increase in student familiarity with the roles of other disciplines, the education and training other disciplines receive, and a perceived increased likelihood of future collaboration.

Continuation:
The course will continue to be offered with enrollment planned to increase in winter 2017 when it will be required for advanced-practice nursing students, bringing enrollment to approximately 350 students per term. We continue to use student feedback to revise and improve the course. Lessons learned from developing this course are being used to advance the IPE efforts on campus.
Dissemination:
Results of this project were presented as platform presentations at the Midwest Interprofessional Practice, Education, and Research conference (September 2015) and the Collaborating Across Borders conference (October 2015). Poster presentations were made at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy meeting (2015 and 2016), and the U-M Health Professions Education Day (May 2016). It has been submitted for publication as well.
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