Telehealth increases health care value and access to care. Its adoption has been accelerated due to COVID-19, impacting practicing clinicians and health professions learners. The abrupt transition to online learning spurred the rapid development of a telehealth simulation with standardized patients for 273 student learners from medicine, nursing, pharmacy and social work enrolled in a longitudinal, 2-semester interprofessional education (IPE) foundations curriculum. The telehealth simulation involving an interprofessional palliative care team meeting with a family caregiver, played by standardized patients, was successfully implemented using the Zoom platform. Observation and assessment of interprofessional team dynamics were conducted by the same faculty facilitator who mentored the student team over two semesters. A survey was administered to faculty to ascertain their perception of the telehealth simulation and the impact of the online platform on the experience. Two assessment questions were embedded in the end-of-course student evaluation. About 65% of facilitators who responded to the survey (n=37) had participated in the in-person simulation in previous years. Over 90% of learners and facilitators agreed the experience met the primary learning objective to prepare interprofessional student teams to effectively communicate the care of a patient to family members. Most facilitators (76%) felt the telehealth format is similar in effectiveness to an in-person experience in fostering interprofessional collaboration. Comparing the two formats, facilitators reported similar or increased effectiveness with the telehealth format in assessing IP team dynamics (70%), and conducting team debriefs (80%). Both learners and facilitators agreed additional telehealth experiences are desired. The perspectives of the learners and facilitators demonstrated that conducting a palliative care simulation using the telehealth format successfully fostered interprofessional communication and collaboration, imparting skills essential to providing patient and family-centered care. Extensive planning and continuous quality improvement reduced barriers to successful implementation.
Disclosures:
In accordance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education’s Standards for Commercial Support, adopted by the Joint Accreditors for Interprofessional Continuing Education, the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education has a conflict of interest policy that requires that all individuals involved in the development of activity content disclose their relevant financial relationships with commercial interests. All potential conflicts of interest that arise based upon these financial relationships are resolved prior to the educational activity.
Alicia Williams, Kristen McHenry, Anita Airee, Paula Miksa, Kate Kiser, Jennifer Savage, Kellee Harper-Hanigan, Sherry Jimenez, Veronica Young, John Luk, Barbara Jones, Kenny Nguyen, Michael Akwari
declare no vested interest in or affiliation with any commercial interest offering financial support for this interprofessional continuing education activity, or any affiliation with a commercial interest whose philosophy could potentially bias their presentation.
