Engaging Community Volunteers Through Quality Interprofessional Learning: A Collaborative Examination with Physical Therapy and Speech-language Pathology Students

Background:
Though the field of interprofessional education (IPE) is growing in its research and peer-reviewed literature, there remains a lack of best-practice recommendations for IPE content and delivery. To address this gap, the Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative and the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education recommended recently, that quality IPE experiences possess four distinct characteristics. However, because the development and implementation of such activities can be a challenge, the dissemination of successful IPE models that include these characteristics is needed to guide this work across and within institutions. This poster describes one successful collaboration between Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) and Masters of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) students.

Design:
IPE-specific learning objectives were created with intentional correlations to IPEC competencies, program/course learning objectives, accreditation standards, and learning assessment methods. Intended outcomes, focused on IPEC interprofessional competencies for communicating roles and responsibilities in executing and optimizing patient care, through respect and use of complementary abilities. This experiential interprofessional activity, occurred as a required lab session in an unprofessional content course within each program. Adult volunteers with a history of stroke, participated in both a collaborative subjective and objective examination, performed by interprofessional teams of DPT and SLP students. Following the session, students debriefed and reflected with peers and preceptors, submitted an independent reflection assignment, and then completed an online survey regarding their perceived quality of the learning opportunity. While qualitative feedback was obtained from preceptors and volunteers via email.

Results:
Qualitative and quantitative feedback from students, preceptors, and clients indicated an overall perceived benefit of and support for this activity. This poster will highlight key findings from each stakeholder.

Conclusion:
Interprofessional case-based simulation with a collaborative cognitive, speech, and physical examination of adult community volunteers, is an authentic and engaging format for learning and practicing skills related to respect and communication of roles and responsibilities across disciplines.

Reflections/Lessons Learned:
Dissemination of quality IPE opportunities is necessary to promote best-practice development, implementation, and evaluation of IPE opportunities to prepare students for collaborative practice in the pursuit of optimal patient care. Lessons learned from this initiative include the needs for more convenient client scheduling options, increased time for debriefing/reflection, and client inclusion in post-session feedback.