Interprofessional Education Competition During the COVID-19 Pandemic at King Saud University: Benefits and Challenges

Abstract

Background The objective of this qualitative study was to explore the value of virtual IPE competition that involved a COVID-19 case among healthcare students and the lessons that can be learned to improve this experience in the future. Methods The 27 senior students from the colleges of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and paramedics were invited to two focus groups that followed the IPE competition and lasted 60 minutes each. A semi-structured focus group discussion guide was used in the focus group discussion to explore the benefits and limitations of the virtual IPE experience. Verbatim transcription of the two video-recorded sessions was conducted, and inductive thematic analysis was performed to uncover different emerging themes. Results The number of students who consented to participate was 16 (59.26%). The IPE virtual competition was perceived favorably by all students; however, multiple organization and communication barriers were reported. Although the participants liked the IPE virtual competition, they clearly stated their preference for an in-person IPE competition over the virtual one. Managing a COVID-19 case was not perceived favorably by some participants due to the absence of evidence-based clinical guidelines supporting certain treatment protocols over others. Thus, some participants preferred a non-COVID-19 case where clear and evidence-based guidelines exist. Conclusion The use of different IPE strategies to enhance healthcare students’ collaboration and understanding of their roles in the multidisciplinary healthcare team, especially during pandemic times, such as COVID-19, is possible. Future studies should examine new and innovative IPE strategies that address the identified limitations of virtual IPE.

The impact of COVID-19 on the delivery of interprofessional education: it's not all bad news

“…The transition from face-to-face IPE to ERT imposed challenges regarding meeting learning outcomes, and access to IPE. Even though our case reports indicated that the intended learning outcomes remained the same during ERT, facilitators still had to ensure that those were addressed adequately by the new mode of delivery (Alrasheed et al, 2021).If IPE continues to be offered online or as a hybrid model, evaluation and assessments of the attained learning outcomes are warranted. Nonetheless, advantages of remote and online learning in IPE should not be overlooked.…”

COVID-19-Driven Improvements and Innovations in Pharmacy Education: A Scoping Review

“…Three of the studies focused on IPE-specific classes. The majority of students who participated in virtual IPE activities reported high levels of satisfaction and agreed or strongly agreed that activities helped clarified professional roles, improved communication and teamwork, and improved confidence levels [9,10,21].…”

“…In the article by Farahani et al, more than 95% of participants stated that more instructional videos should be included within all lab-based classes [24]. Three of the studies reported telehealth as a theme and noted the benefit and importance of being able to mimic emerging telehealth practices in pharmacy practice using web conferencing platforms [16,18,21]. Only one study focused on students' opinions relating to virtual versus in-person learning after returning to in-person learning, and students in this study expressed a strong preference for in-person labs after having virtual labs the previous year [22].…”

Medical and pharmacy students’ perspectives of remote synchronous interprofessional education sessions

“…The educational content for IPE in prescribing in primary care sessions was originally developed for face to face teaching delivery in 2019 and shifted to the remote setting due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Published literature showed the lessons learnt from the innovative trials of emergency remote teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic and suggested exploring the virtual IPE models further [18][19][20]. In order to maintain the effective teaching delivery and student engagement during the remote sessions, video communication and online polling tools were added as an interactive component to the IPE sessions at UCL School of Pharmacy.…”