DOCTOR OF PHYSICAL THERAPY STUDENTS' SELF-ASSESSMENT OF INTERPROFESSIONAL INTERACTIONS AND VALUES: A COMPARISON OF CLINICAL EXPERIENCE SETTING TYPE

G. Ayscue¹, A. Burke-Doe¹, N. Rodriguez¹

Background: In 2018 the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education mandated the inclusion of Interprofessional Education (IPE) as part of the didactic and clinical curriculum for physical therapy. Further, learning activities must be directed toward the development of IPE competencies including values/ethics, communication, professional roles and responsibilities, and teamwork. There is little evidence in physical therapy literature about how IPE facilitates learners to achieve self-efficacy in interprofessional domains based on clinical education setting.

Purpose: To assess IPE within our Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) curriculum by examining third year entry level DPT students' self-efficacy using the revised Interprofessional Education Collaboration (IPEC) competencies self-assessment survey across various clinical settings.

Methods: Four cohorts of DPT students (n = 143) in their terminal 15-week clinical experience were asked to rate their ability level on each competency using a 5-point Likert scale. Students participated in IPE activities throughout the entry level curriculum and completed 45 weeks of clinicals in a variety of settings including acute care, outpatient, pediatrics, home health or skilled nursing. The 16-question refined IPEC competency self-assessment survey was utilized to investigate IPE competencies in the domains of Interprofessional Interaction (n = 8 items) and Interprofessional Values (n = 8 items) during terminal clinical experiences. Responses for items in each domain were averaged to arrive at a domain score.

Results: The average age of respondents was 28.02 and 53.8% were female. The interprofessional interactions domain scores were 4.6 (acute care n = 16) , 4.43 (outpatient n = 93), 4.6 (pediatrics n = 12), 4.22 (home health n = 3) and 4.38 for (skilled nursing n =19). Interprofessional values domain scores were 4.85 (acute care) , 4.67 (outpatient), 4.91 (pediatrics), 4.81 (home health) and 4.81 for (skilled nursing). Findings suggest that interprofessional interactions and value competencies were negatively correlated and vary across settings.
Interprofessional interactions such as the choice of communication approach or student engagement in shared problem solving was highest in the pediatric and acute practice settings and lowest in the home health setting. In the interprofessional values domain student attitudes towards standards such as placing the patient at the center of care and embracing the diversity of patients was highest in the pediatric setting and lowest in the outpatient orthopedic setting.

Conclusion(s): The results demonstrated differences in scores by clinical experience setting. This study provided insight on the impact of clinical experience setting type and the students’ confidence to execute behaviors necessary for interprofessional collaboration.

Implications: Interprofessional competencies improve patient care and outcomes. These results can help inform curriculum planning, track the effects of physical therapy programs on interprofessional competency, and provide data that can be used to improve IPE based on clinical setting.

Funding, acknowledgements: N/A

Keywords: Interprofessional education, Interprofessional collaboration, Clinical education

Topic: Education: clinical

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Institution: West Coast University

Committee: West Coast University Institutional Review Board

Reason: Research conducted in educational settings, involving normal educational practices, does not require IRB approval