Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Partnership Between Pharmacy and Dentistry

This project focuses on an interprofessional education and collaborative practice partnership between the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry (SOD) and the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy (COP). The University Of Minnesota School Of Dentistry provides oral healthcare services to patients through a range of clinics, including the School’s Comprehensive Care Clinics (Clinics) and through several innovative outreach programs, providing services to underserved populations and a large, diverse, metro and rural patient population.

The Interprofessional team in this project includes students and faculty members from the dentistry, dental hygiene, dental therapy, and pharmacy programs, as well as staff dental assistants in the Team Care Clinic (TCC). The TCC was selected because it utilizes a uni-professional team-based care model, in which dental, dental hygiene, and dental therapy students provide patient centered care within their group practice. Selection of the TCC allowed for collaboration of the pharmacy team with students from each dentistry program.

Dentistry, dental therapy, and dental hygiene students rotated through the TCC in 4-week blocks. The rotation consisted of collaborating with all members of the inter- and intraprofessional healthcare team. Students presented each patient in an interprofessional team huddle twice daily to discuss medical and medication history and proposed treatment plan. This setting presented the pharmacy team with consistent opportunities to provide general education to the student group, as well as case-based education to students and patients. All patient interactions and recommendations were documented in the EHR.

Additionally, as part of their required pharmacology course, dental hygiene students consulted with the pharmacy team prior to a patient encounter for those patients with greater than three chronic conditions and greater than seven prescription medications. Students were required to prepare for the consultation, as well as reflect on their experience working with the pharmacy team.

Participants will be able to use the ideas from this practice model to identify interprofessional collaboration opportunities that were previously overlooked. Additionally, participants will be able to identify innovative interprofessional education opportunities within a clinical setting.