Students matriculate into Physician Assistant (PA) and Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) programs with varied healthcare experience, resulting in the differing levels of confidence during didactic and clinical year phases. A tiered didactic and simulation-based learning opportunity for PA and DPT students was developed with the aim of increasing student confidence around inpatient lines, tubes, and drains and collaboration among disciplines. In turn, the increase in confidence may imply benefits of interprofessional multimodality content delivery between these health professions.
First-year PA and DPT students were engaged in a purposefully designed activity with didactic and simulation components. Realizing the unique approaches and cross-over between what each profession needed to learn about inpatient equipment,, PA and DPT faculty collaborated with the simulation department to develop an interprofessional initiative.
The presentation will describe the didactic and simulation program, assessment and survey methods, and student outcomes related to confidence. The discussion will include student insight to roles and responsibilities and benefits of teams regarding medical equipment. Lastly, the impact on student confidence will be demonstrated as a result of this multimodality content delivery method.
The activity, fondly named ‘Whose Line,’ was designed around both unique and similar needs of the PA and DPT programs to deliver medical equipment based content. Recognizing that both PAs and DPTs have a shared responsibility of knowing medical equipment while recognizing their unique perspective facilitated the need to have students collaborate and discuss the equipment from their professional perspective. This activity fostered discussion and learning of professional roles, responsibilities as well as the importance of teams in patient care as it relates to medical equipment. Furthermore, the increase in reported confidence for both equipment and ability to discuss equipment among the two professions demonstrated a positive outcome.
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.
