Abstract:

Background:
Many IPE (Interprofessional Education) activities are built on didactic experiences that pair students from various professions to build practice skills. Experiential learning in IPE is also important so that students can share points of view, knowledge, and treatment recommendations. The professions of pharmacy and nutrition are situated well to collaborate together, especially given the dramatic rise of chronic diseases that require both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic management.

Interprofessional Education Activity:
This pilot project matched pharmacy students in the US who were completing an ambulatory care Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience with nutrition students in Mexico who were completing a Nutrition Assessment and Intervention class. The pharmacy students identified a patient at the clinic living with diabetes and shared de-identified information with the nutrition students. The interdisciplinary collaboration occurred virtually over the rotation block to address clinical problems for real patients while applying principles from the nutrition care process and the pharmacist patient care process. The students then presented a final patient case presentation together and discussed their areas of learning.

Results and Discussion:
A total of 11 nutrition students from Mexico and 4 pharmacy students from the US participated in this 10-week project. All students were asked to complete a survey about their experience. Students from both professions responded positively about their interprofessional teamwork as measured by the SPICE-R instrument. There was a statistically significant difference between the pharmacy and nutrition students in three interprofessional statements from the SPICE-R instrument. The nutrition students had higher levels of agreement that patient satisfaction is improved when patients are treated by an interprofessional team (p=0.0427). The nutrition students also were more likely to agree that they understood the roles of other health professionals within an interprofessional team (p=0.0038). Finally, the nutrition students had stronger agreement with health professional students working in interprofessional teams during their education in order to understand their respective roles (p=0.0376). These results indicated that one statement from each of the SPICE-R factors, outcomes, teamwork, and roles/responsibilities, was represented in these significant differences between the student cohorts. The nutrition students from Mexico also indicated higher levels of confidence than the US pharmacy students when interacting with people of diverse backgrounds (p=0.0401). Student recommendations for future expansion centered on increasing time for interprofessional teamwork, following patients for longer timeframes, and working together in person.

Implications:
This pilot project allowed for virtual, interprofessional collaboration in an experiential setting. Students expressed positive feedback regarding their interprofessional and cultural learning. Future steps will involve expansion of the opportunity to include additional teamwork and patient-centered collaboration.

Keywords:

Interprofessional Education, Experiential Learning, Collaborative Online International Learning, Higher education, educational innovation.