Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

4-30-2020

Institution/Department

Maine Medical Center, Medical Education, Maine Medical Center Research Institute

MeSH Headings

Humans, Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Services, Pharmacies, Curriculum, Students, Social Work

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the impact of a Maine Medical Center Dept. of Family Medicine interprofessional education curriculum on student perceptions of competency and autonomy within their own profession, on attitudes toward the contributions and value of other disciplines and individual self-assessment of skills required to work effectively on an IP team.

Background: Interprofessional (IP) collaboration among a variety of health care disciplines has been found to be effective in improving patient health outcomes, reducing medical errors, decreasing readmission rates and enhancing patient satisfaction. Efforts are being focused globally on training health care professionals to work in collaborative practices through interprofessional education (IPE). Student participant satisfaction, attitudes and reactions to IPE have been well-studied. To add to the literature, we were interested in assessing the impact of a Maine Medical Center Family Medicine IPE curriculum on student perceptions of competency and autonomy within their own profession, on attitudes toward the contributions and value of other disciplines and individual self-assessment of skills required to work effectively on an IP team. Methods: From October 2014 to December 2018, social work, pharmacy and medical students worked as an IP team involving inpatient, outpatient and home visit experiences. Students completed two validated surveys pre- and post- their interprofessional education (IPE) rotation: the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) and the Teams Skills Scale (TSS). Paired t-test analyses were conducted on individual pre- and post-survey scores.

Results: 27 (77%) of the 35 participating students completed pre- and post- surveys. Significant differences were found between student pre-IEPS mean scores (4.98) and post-IEPS mean scores (5.29), with a mean difference in matched pairs of 0.31 (p < 0.0009, n = 27). Students reported significant differences in individual pre-TSS mean scores (3.52) and post-TSS mean scores (4.31), with a mean difference in matched pairs of 0.79 (p < 0.0001, n = 27).

Discussion: Our findings demonstrate that an integrated IPE curriculum involving teaching and team experiences across inpatient, outpatient and home settings had a positive impact on students’ overall IP teamwork perceptions, attitudes and self-assessed skills. Strong administrative support and faculty IP training and buy-in were essential to overcome the predicted challenges of implementing a curriculum with students from different professions, developmental stages, and rotation schedules. Future studies would benefit from increasing the number of students from all professional groups and recruiting multiple sites. Collecting additional demographic information would allow for analysis and understanding about such factors as the impact of gender or previous IPE experience on the impact of the IPE curriculum.

Conclusion: This study provides evidence that an IPE curriculum, taught by IP faculty, with experiences across inpatient, outpatient and home settings, where students learn with, from, and about each other, has a positive impact on IP attitudes, perceptions and self-assessed teamwork skills of students from the professions of medicine, pharmacy and social work.

Comments

2020 Costas T. Lambrew Research Retreat

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