The Impact of Interprofessional Education on Health Profession Students’ Professional Identity

Abstract

Establishing interprofessional identity is critical in preparing health care teams to work in collaborative environments and enhance efficacy of patient care. Accreditation standards for health profession programs have been implemented to include interprofessional education (IPE), yet there remains obfuscation regarding occupational therapy’s (OT) professional identity. The purpose of this prospective pre-post test study was to assess an experiential IPE event for health profession students (n = 170 from ten health profession programs) to: (1) determine the effectiveness of role playing and team-based case discussions on students’ knowledge and perceptions toward each other’s professions, and (2) specifically assess the impact of the IPE event on students’ perceptions toward OT roles and responsibilities. Health profession students were asked to complete a survey prior to and at the conclusion of the IPE event, which included the validated Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) and non-standardized closed and open-ended questions. Quantitative analysis of responses showed a significant improvement in interdisciplinary perceptions after the experience as evidenced by higher IEPS scores. Post-test open-ended responses confirmed this finding. Health profession programs were stratified, revealing positive significant differences regarding OT. These findings suggest role-playing and team-based case discussions for IPE can have a positive impact on students’ interprofessional perceptions and understanding of OT.

Enhancing Competency-Based Social Work Skills Through Service Learning and Interprofessional Education in a Student-Run Free Healthcare Clinic

“…Students' development of their professional identity was another key area of perceived growth. These are consistent with research findings that both SL (Levy & Edmiston, 2015;Long & Gummelt, 2020;Nino et al, 2011) and IPE (Ciani et al, 2023;Haugland et al, 2019;Rishel et al, 2020) were related to social work students' professional identity development. An oft-repeated sentiment by students was their appreciation of being an essential part of the interprofessional team.…”

“…Social work students must understand their role, as well as the unique contributions they bring to the team (cf. Ciani et al, 2023). Rishel and colleagues (2020) examined social work professional identity of 61 MSW students who took part in an IPE training program designed to prepare students for practice in integrated health.…”

Interprofessional education on autism and intellectual disabilities: Program description and initial evaluation.

“…The course sequence consists of (a) INTERACT 510: introduction to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and interprofessional teaming, taught in the 16-week spring semester, (b) INTERACT 520: comprehensive treatment models for ASD, an intensive 2-week course offered in May, (c) INTERACT 530: interprofessional assessment of ASD, spanning approximately 4 weeks during June, (d) INTERACT 540: interprofessional intervention for ASD, which lasts approximately 4 weeks during July; and (e) INTERACT 550: capstone, a 16-week course in the fall semester. Courses incorporate didactic and active learning strategies associated with positive outcomes for learners, such as role play and team discussion of case studies (Ciani et al, 2023; Heath et al, 2015; Nowak et al, 2023). The curriculum is designed to increase scholars’ knowledge about autism and moderate to severe ID and to support their growth in the IPE Collaborative’s (IPEC) core competencies: (a) values and ethics, (b) roles and responsibilities, (c) interprofessional communication, and (d) teams and teamwork (IPEC, 2016).…”

“…Nowak et al (2023) demonstrated that clinical experiences embedded in IPE curriculum were associated with positive changes in medical students' attitudes about teamwork and roles/responsibilities. Ciani et al (2023) found that IPE that included the active learning strategies of role play and team-based case discussions increased occupational therapy students' understanding of the roles and responsibilities of their own discipline and other disciplines.…”

“…This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Courses incorporate didactic and active learning strategies associated with positive outcomes for learners, such as role play and team discussion of case studies (Ciani et al, 2023;Heath et al, 2015;Nowak et al, 2023). The curriculum is designed to increase scholars' knowledge about autism and moderate to severe ID and to support their growth in the IPE Collaborative's (IPEC) core competencies: (a) values and ethics, (b) roles and responsibilities, (c) interprofessional communication, and (d) teams and teamwork (IPEC, 2016).…”