Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

A pilot study evaluating the feasibility of assessing undergraduate pharmacy and medical students interprofessional collaboration during an online interprofessional education intervention about hospital discharge

Lookup NU author(s): Hailah Almoghirah, Professor Jan Illing, Professor Hamde Nazar

Downloads


Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

© 2023, BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature. Background: Interprofessional education (IPE) has been identified as a strategy towards improving competence at interprofessional working and collaboration within teams. Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) provide a framework for translating competencies into elements of clinical practice, some of which in healthcare are inherently interprofessional. However, it is challenging to reconcile that entrustment decisions about student competence in an interprofessional activity are made about an individual without considering the dynamics and tensions between interprofessional team members and the task itself. This can influence students’ development and demonstration of competence at interprofessional collaboration. Methods: In this study, undergraduate medical and pharmacy students worked in pairs online (Zoom) to undertake the hospital discharge process (a professional activity reliant on interprofessional collaboration) for a simulated patient, producing a hospital discharge letter and completing a consultation with the simulated patient. The online sessions were recorded and interprofessional behaviours were assessed using a validated scale completed by an interprofessional assessment team. Students undertook this IPE intervention three times after receiving feedback and a period of reflection each time. Results: Eighteen students participated across the entire intervention and 27 one-hour online IPE sessions were completed and recorded. Students demonstrated statistically significant improvements in interprofessional behaviours across the three iterations (p < 0.05 for all the sessions). The discharge letter students produced also improved over the three sessions (p = 0.01). Students found the educational sessions useful and relevant. Conclusion: This online IPE intervention provided the students with an authentic opportunity to work collaboratively. At the end of each iteration, students received feedback about their work as a team and about the discharge letter, helping students to reflect and purposefully develop their performance. The IPE intervention with this assessment strategy is feasible and allows student development to be captured but has proved to be time and resource intensive.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Almoghirah H, Illing J, Nazar M, Nazar H

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: BMC Medical Education

Year: 2023

Volume: 23

Issue: 1

Online publication date: 21/08/2023

Acceptance date: 31/07/2023

Date deposited: 15/09/2023

ISSN (electronic): 1472-6920

Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd

URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04557-x

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-023-04557-x

Data Access Statement: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

PubMed id: 37605168


Altmetrics

Altmetrics provided by Altmetric


Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Share