From Introduction to Integration: Providing Community-Engaged Structure for Interprofessional Education

Background Training future healthcare profession students using interprofessional education (IPE) is critical to improve quality of health care and patient safety. Objective The objective of this study was to implement an IPE program and determine student satisfaction with each session, including a clinical case requiring teams with members from each profession addressing clinical scenarios. Subjects The subjects of this study were students from Athletic Training, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant, Social Work, and Speech-Language Pathology. Methods Evaluations, administered to all participating students, consisted of Likert-style responses, rating agreement with a series of questions, and space for descriptive comments. Score differences for each question were compared using independent group t-tests with a P-value of 0.05 to determine statistical significance. Results There were statistically higher satisfaction ratings for the problem-based learning case when compared to less interactive sessions (P < 0.0001). Conclusion Students perceived benefits of the IPE program. Perceptions improved when various students had the opportunity to work together on clinically relevant problems.