Assessing Interprofessional Education Collaborative Competencies in Service-Learning Course

To investigate the effect of an interprofessional service-learning course on health professions students' self-assessment of Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) competencies. The semester-long elective course consisted of two components: a service component where students provided patient care in an interprofessional student-run free clinic and bi-weekly workshops in which students reflected on their experiences and discussed roles, team dynamics, communication skills, and challenges with underserved patient populations. All fifteen students enrolled in the course completed a validated 42-question survey in a retrospective post-then-pre design. The survey instrument assessed IPEC competencies in four domains: Values and Ethics, Roles and Responsibilities, Interprofessional Communication, and Teams and Teamwork. Students' self-assessment of IPEC competencies significantly improved in all four domains after completion of the course. Completing an interprofessional service-learning course had a positive effect on students' self-assessment of interprofessional competencies, suggesting service-learning is an effective pedagogical platform for interprofessional education.