Evaluation of a virtual interprofessional oral‐systemic health simulation experience in nursing, dentistry, medicine, and pharmacy education

Abstract

PurposeThe annual teaching oral‐systemic health (TOSH) virtual clinical simulation and case study activity exposes interprofessional teams of nurse practitioner, nurse midwifery, dental, medical, and pharmacy students to a virtual clinical simulation experience that uses oral‐systemic health as a clinical exemplar for promoting interprofessional core competencies. The present study examines changes in participating students’ self‐reported interprofessional competencies following participation in virtual TOSH from 2020 to 2022. These findings are also compared to those from in‐person TOSH (2019) to examine the equivalence of student outcomes of both the in‐person and virtual programs.MethodsA pre‐ and post‐test evaluation design was used to examine the effectiveness of exposure to the TOSH program on self‐reported attainment of interprofessional competencies for participating students using the interprofessional collaborative competency attainment scale.ResultsAnalysis of pre‐ and post‐surveys demonstrated statistically significant improvement in students’ self‐rated interprofessional experience competencies following the virtual TOSH program, which aligns with results from the in‐person cohorts. Similar findings between the in‐person and virtual cohorts indicated no statistically significant difference between the two formats.ConclusionThese findings demonstrate the success of TOSH in promoting attainment of interprofessional competencies among future health professionals. We encourage administrators and faculty who lead health professional programs to take advantage of using virtual simulations as an integral component of interprofessional oral health clinical experiences where students from different health professions learn from and about each other in assessing and treating patients across the lifespan.