The impact of a one-time interprofessional education event for rehabilitation after stroke for students in the health professions
Purpose: The Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice identifies the values/ethics, roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, teams and teamwork, which are guidelines for IPE.1 The purpose of this project is to describe a one-time IPE experience around stroke and to report on the outcomes.Methods/Description: This was a one-time, 3-hour IPE event involving 166 students from physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology and therapeutic recreation. Students were given a case study online of a patient who had a right cerebral vascular accident. Prior to the event, students identified goals they had for the patient, tests and measures they would use to examine the patient, and interventions that would be appropriate for the patient. This information was shared during a discussion with an interprofessional group at the event. Also at the event were a panel of clinicians from the community who answered questions, as well as a panel of people who had a stroke from the community. The Wilcoxon Sign-Ranks test was used to compare pretest and posttest survey results on how knowledgeable the students felt about the impact a stroke can have on a patient’s quality of life, their understanding of the rehabilitation process involved in a patient who had a stroke, how knowledgeable they were about other professions, and the role of their profession on the rehabilitation team.Results/Outcomes: After the IPE event, 76.25% (n=122) students strongly agreed that they felt knowledgeable about the impact a stroke can have on a patient’s quality of life compared to 54.17% (n=91) prior to the event. 56.25% (n=90) of students strongly agreed that they had an understanding of the rehabilitation process involved in a patient who had a stroke after the IPE Event compared to only 26.79% (n=45) prior to the event. 40.00% (n=64) strongly agreed that they felt knowledgeable about other professions after the event whereas only 7.73% (n=13) strongly agreed prior to the event. Lastly, 84.38% (n=135) strongly agreed that they understood their role on the healthcare team after the event compared to 66.07% (n=111) prior to the event. All answers to the questions improved significantly at posttest (p=.000).Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: Our Leadership Landscape: Perspectives from the Ground Level to 30,000 Feet: A one-time IPE event was successful in improving students’ knowledge of stroke, the rehabilitation process, other professions, as well as their own profession. Other institutions have implemented programs of longer duration (ranging from 4 hours2 to 2 semesters3), however, this one-time, 3-hour event was successful in meeting the outcomes of IPE and should be considered by other educational programs for health professions. By including the interprofessional rehabilitation team in the education of students in the health profession, the leadership within each of the profession grows to improve values/ethics, roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, teams and teamwork as identified by the Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice.References: 1. Interprofessional Education Collaboration. Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: 2016 update. Washington, D.C.: Interprofessional Education Collaborative. 2. Buckley S, Hensman M, Thomas S, Dudley R, Nevin G, Coleman J. Developing interprofessional simulation in the undergraduate setting: experience with five different professional groups. J Interprof Care. 2012: 26: 362-369. 3. Parder RA, Gottlieb H, Dominguez DG, Sanchez-Diaz P, Jones ME. Integrating an interprofessional education model at a private university. International Journal of Higher Education [serial online]. 2015; 4(3): 112-118.