Abstract:

Purpose:
The World Health Organization advocates for interprofessional education (IPE) inclusion into curriculums for all health care students. The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy (OT) Education encourages the incorporation of meaningful IPE into OT school curriculums. IPE prepares students to provide futuristic health care that is evidence-based, patient-centered, standardized, reliable, efficient, and equitable. IPE focuses on developing student skills for team-based practice in four competency areas: values/ethics, roles/ responsibilities, interprofessional communication practices, and interprofessional teamwork. This learning activity was designed to provide students with an opportunity to apply ethical principles within a format of IPE to prepare them for future practice.

Methods:
The ethics quiz bowl was modeled on the National High School Ethics Bowl. Participating health care disciplines submitted health-care focused cases and edited them to enhance their applicability to all participating specialties. Faculty acted as judges and moderators. Teams were assigned and students received the potential ethical case scenarios and contact information for their teammates approximately 2 weeks before the actual quiz bowl and could choose to prepare together if they desired but this was not mandatory. All teams were comprised of students from multiple disciplines and had 6-8 team members. Students and faculty from occupational therapy, pharmacy, sonography, and nuclear imaging, and physician assistant programs participated. Teams received their actual cases for the first time at the opening round and had 3 minutes to read the case and determine their ethical position. Judges scored each match and the winning teams were determined by combining rounds won and scores in individual rounds. A survey evaluating the Quiz Bowl was distributed to all students who participated. The survey consisted of four questions using a 5-point Likert scale and two short-answer questions. The survey evaluated the student’s perceptions of the IPE. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate overall effectiveness of the IPE and scores by discipline are being compared to determine if any significant differences exist between disciplines.

Results:
Seventy-seven students signed-up to participate in the Ethics Quiz Bowl. Seventy-one students participated and returned evaluative surveys (92%). Overall, 88% of students agreed that the quiz bowl was a good format for IPE and 76% believed that the time they used to participate was worthwhile. Additionally, 77% of students agreed that they learned worthwhile information on the application of ethical principles to their future health care practice and 75% of students agreed that we should repeat the ethics quiz bowl the following spring. In general, occupational therapy and pharmacy students were more positive in their responses than physician assistant and imaging students.

Conclusion:
For health care providers to collaborate effectively and improve health outcomes, they must be provided with opportunities as students to collaborate with other disciplines. The barriers and logistics around developing IPE programs can be daunting but the potential benefits to students who graduate with the skills necessary to work in a patient-centered collaborative health care environment is great.

Keywords:

IPE, Ethics.