An Innovative Curriculum to Foster Interprofessional Collaboration Amongst Medical Students
Poster Description: Background: Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC)’s mission is to ensure that health professionals are proficient in competencies essential for patient-centered, community and population-oriented, interprofessional, collaborative practice. First-year curriculum at Duke University School of Medicine includes teaching on IPEC principles, though students lack the opportunity to apply them clinically.The goals of our curriculum are to expose students to the value of IPEC and improve understanding of the roles/responsibilities of other health care professionals Research question was to know the impact of this curriculum on medical student self-perception of IPEC preparedness. We also wanted to know what affects medical student understanding of IPEC.
Design:During their pediatric clerkship, students select two patients for whom they are caring on the wards and identify additional health professionals who might contribute to these patients’ care. They observe selected health professionals and interview them to learn about their roles. Students then attend a debrief session to discuss insights gained with their peers.Students filled out a survey both pre- and post-curriculum using Nebraska Interprofessional Education Attitudes Scale (NIPEAS) survey utilizing a Likert scale. Students provided written individual and small group reflections during debrief sessions. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare these responses to account for paired data. Authors reviewed a convenience sample of 95 surveys and 6 debrief sessions and followed an iterative process to finalize the list of themes with consensus from authors.
Results: After the curriculum, there were significant differences (p < 0.05) in the students’ self-perception in multiple domains including related to understanding of roles, effective communication, respect, and team dynamics.
Major Themes were identified from qualitative analysis - Diversity of expertise, Improved communication, Mutual Respect, Environment of Care, Understanding of Roles, No Single Provider, Collaborative Care, Comprehensive Care/Holistic Care, Improved Patient Outcomes.
Conclusion: This curriculum was associated with improvement in multiple domains. Students described an understanding of the importance of other health care professionals in providing comprehensive health care. Students also described increased comfort level in reaching out to other health care professionals. Next steps are to consider expansion and integration of this curriculum to other clerkships and clinical training experiences within Duke and across other institutions.
Reflections: This curriculum provides a method for implementing IPE in a real clinical environment. To our knowledge, our study is one of the first to show improved attitudes towards IPE amongst students based on learning in a real clinical environment while caring for patients.
