Vision 2030: A Blended Pharmacy and Dental IPE Collaboration
At the 2018 ADEA Annual Session in March, Gail S. Childs, RDH, MPH, and Venita J. Sposetti, DMD, presented and co-authored a poster with Kathryn J. Smith, PharmD; Carol M. Stewart MS, DDS, MS; and Diane E. Beck, Pharm.D, about UF’s new interprofessional collaboration with dental students and pharmacy students.
The learning experience used a blended three-part instructional design: 1) communicating professional roles and responsibilities, 2) collaboration in treatment of a medically complex standardized patient (SP) case and 3) prescribing and prescription writing with feedback and appropriate documentation in the electronic health record.
This study was approved by the IRB as exempt. Ninety-three third-year dental students and 236 second-year pharmacy students were placed into interprofessional teams.
In part one, students completed the Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Collaboration (JeffSATIC) and a roles and responsibilities knowledge quiz (RRKQ) for the other profession. Students used an online tool (Big Blue Button) to discuss roles/ responsibilities of their professions.
In part two, students collaboratively reviewed a medically complex SP case, formulated questions and interviewed the SP. Teams developed acute care treatment plans and dental students wrote prescriptions. Pharmacy students provided feedback to the dental students on their prescriptions. Team-based learning questions were posed to the entire group to complete the active learning session.
In part three, the post-experience, students completed a JeffSATIC, a RRKQ, documentation of the patient encounter and completed a program evaluation.
Pre/post experience participation rates (JeffSATIC and RRKQ) and programmatic feedback for dental and pharmacy students were high (94 percent and above). From four-paired T tests on the JeffSATIC, there was a small, but significant difference in the attitudes of female pharmacy students from pre test to post test. There was no significant difference in the other three groups. A paired T test for students in both professions on the RRKQ resulted in no significant differences on pre/ post attitude or knowledge assessments between dental and pharmacy students. For dental students, the mean difference is 2.1538 with 95% CI (-0.6639, 4.9716). P value of 0.1317. For pharmacy students, the mean difference is 1.3151 with 95% CI (-0.3199, 2.9502). P value of 0.1143. Using a binomial test, student responses to four program evaluation questions, all p values are <0.05. Overall students agreed that collaborating on a patient care plan and writing/verifying prescriptions were beneficial experiences.
In conclusion, the interprofessional collaboration resulted in a novel experience using blended learning technologies, learner-centered pedagogies, mutually relevant content, and students reported the experience was valuable. There was a statistically significant increase in attitudes among female pharmacy students. The earlier D1 & D2 IPE curricular experiences in combination with the short duration of this experience may explain why no significant increase in knowledge or attitudinal changes were observed. Next steps include an adaptation of this experience as part of an IPE competency assessment.