Background/Aims
Interprofessional education has a significant impact on learners' attitudes, skills and behaviors towards teamwork. There is also evidence that IPE can improve clinical outcomes. Our ability to modify attitudes to teamwork using short educational interventions is limited. This is useful since many programs struggle with enough curricular time for comprehensive IPE programming. Our hypothesis was that first-year student attitudes towards teamwork would improve with our half-day IPE course.
Design or Methodology
The Interprofessional Team Training Day (ITTD) trained first year students from the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Public Health. This included 7 preclinical disciplines from Anesthesiologist Assistant (AA), Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), Doctor of Medicine (MD), Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT), Genetic Counselor (GC), Physician Assistant (PA), and Public Health (PH) programs. ITTD consisted of a large group lecture, multidisciplinary case-based panel discussions, small group sessions, and a social. Small group sessions were led by faculty facilitators from the healthcare system. Students also completed an on-line IPE learning module prior to the ITTD. Using the Nebraska Interprofessional Education Attitudes Scale (NIPEAS), student perceptions of their ability to effectively communicate were assessed prior to and following the training event. A paired-samples t-test was conducted to determine the effect of the ITTD on team attitudes.
Results
A total of 1164 students participated in the ITT Day. Nine hundred sixty (83%) students completed the NIPEAS before ITTD and of those 540 (56%) completed the post-ITTD NIPEAS. Overall NIPEAS score increased from a mean of 4.29 to 4.43, p=0.003. The mean differences among disciplines ranged from 0.03 (BSN) to 0.29 (AA).
Conclusion
Modifying attitudes towards teamwork especially early in healthcare education is important. These improvements that we demonstrated after only a half-day IPE program will provide our students with a strong base for future educational interventions.
In support of improving patient care, this activity is planned and implemented by The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education. The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
As a Jointly Accredited Provider, the National Center is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. The National Center maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive continuing education credits.
This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credit for learning and change.
