Interprofessional clinical education for occupational therapy and psychology students: A social skills training program for children with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

An interprofessional clinical learning experience was developed for pre-licensure occupational therapy (OT) and psychology graduate students. Students worked in interprofessional teams to plan and implement a social skills training program for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The objectives were to provide a hands-on, student-led clinical experience; facilitate interprofessional collaborative learning through leadership partnerships and teach children with ASD to engage in appropriate social skill behaviors. Concurrently, faculty performed qualitative research to explore how the students worked together to provide intervention to the children. Data were collected via interview, direct observation of student planning sessions and student interprofessional interactions, and collection of posts from an online social network site used for session planning. There were six student participants and two faculty participants. Four themes emerged: learning who I am as a professional, learning to appreciate our professional differences, learning to communicate with each other and figuring it out, for the benefit of the kids. This interprofessional clinical learning experience and research helps ensure that students are adequately prepared to represent their profession as part of a diverse interprofessional health care team.

Importance of Interprofessional Education in Occupational Therapy Curricula

“…Ultimately, IPE aims to create more effective systems of interprofessional practice, defined as a higher form of practice wherein health care professionals from different disciplines make up a team, unique to the individual client-patient, that works with the client to develop a unified decision (National Academies of Practice, 2012). IPP results in safer and more efficient delivery of health care (Guitard, Dubouloz, Savard, Metthé, & Brasset-Latulippe, 2010) as well as greater patient satisfaction (Howell, Wittman, & Bundy, 2012;Kent & Keating, 2013;Shiyanbola, Lammers, Randall, & Richards, 2012;Solomon & Risdon, 2011), thus validating the need to embed IPE into entry-level preparation for occupational therapy practitioners.…”

“…Assessments used in these studies have focused on measuring changes in attitudes, perceptions, behaviors, knowledge, skills, and abilities, although changes in student attitudes and percep-tions are by far the most commonly assessed variables. In addition to positive changes in students' perception of health care teams and IPE, recent studies have noted that students who participate in IPE increase knowledge of their own professional roles, improve communication skills with people outside of their own profession, and develop critical skills necessary for working on interprofessional teams ( ; Howell et al, 2012;Olson & Bialocerkowski, 2014;Solomon & Risdon, 2011). Some studies have noted that engagement in interprofessional learning may lead to health care providers who demonstrate higher levels of safety and more efficient delivery of medical care.…”

Students’ self-perceptions of interprofessional education following participation on a diagnostic team for autism spectrum disorder

“…If students are to enter the workforce prepared to evaluate children using an interprofessional approach, they should be educated within an IPE model (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2014;Prelock, 2006). However, a lack of education in the area of interprofessional collaboration continues (Howell, Wittman, & Bundy, 2012). It is important, therefore, to develop and evaluate authentic IPE experiences when working with young children with possible ASD.…”

Psychology Student Experience of a Brief, Interprofessional Team Training

“…Only a few models of psychology student IPE involvement have been described in the literature (Hadjistavropoulos et al., 2015; Howell, Wittman, & Bundy, 2012; Wellmon, Gilin, Knauss, & Linn, 2012; Zucchero, Hooker, Harland, Larkin & Tunningley, 2011; Zucchero, Hooker, & Larkin, 2010; Zucchero, Iwasaki, Lewis, Lee, & Robbins, 2014). The training model utilized by Zucchero et al.…”