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Hall M.1, Sadowski C.2, Jones C.A.1, Bertholet R.2
1University of Alberta, Physical Therapy, Edmonton, Canada, 2University of Alberta, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Edmonton, Canada
Background: Interprofessional Education (IPE) is necessary for health science students to develop the collaborative practice skills necessary to work well in teams and meet the needs of an ever changing healthcare environment (Frenk et al. 2010). IPE occurs when “students from two or more professions learn with, from and about each other” to improve health outcomes (WHO, 2010). Darlow et al. (2016) noted that student peer teaching may enable students to more actively engage in IPE and begin to build relationships with health professional students with whom they may later work. Scheduling of large scale IPE with multiple health professional programs is sometimes challenging (Lawlis, Anson & Greenfield, 2014); however opportunities exist for focused experiences for students to learn practical skills and gain knowledge from another profession.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate reciprocal peer teaching between physiotherapy and pharmacy students learning about medical devices: physiotherapy students learning inhaler technique from pharmacy students and pharmacy students learning about gait aid prescription and use from physiotherapy students.
Methods: The study was a series of pre:post peer-teaching evaluations conducted over 4 years. In years 1 and 2 there were pharmacy learners and physiotherapy teachers, which reversed in years 3 and 4. Students who consented completed a 10 point-pretest regarding knowledge of the devices (i.e. ambulatory assistive devices [canes, crutches, walkers] for pharmacy, inhalers for physiotherapy), and their views of professional roles. Afterwards students completed a post-test with the same questions as the pretest. Descriptive statistics were used for demographics, and scores on the multiple choice questions were compared. Written feedback was analyzed qualitatively.
Results: A total of 220 pharmacy students completed the pre/post tests for assistive device instruction. Knowledge mean scores improved from 2.7 (SD 2.7) pre, to 6.4 (SD 1.8) post-test. Improvement was seen for the 142 Physiotherapy students knowledge scores for instruction of inhaler use from 4.1 (SD 1.4) pre- to 7.6 (SD 1.3) post-test. 76% (n= 108) of physiotherapy and 73% (n= 160) of pharmacy students responded positively to enjoying the interaction with the other profession. Students articulated three components that created a positive learning experience practicality for patient care, the interprofessional nature of the activity, and the supportive and fun environment.
Conclusion(s): Our results demonstrate that interprofessional peer teaching was an effective and well received method of increasing knowledge and skills in the application of commonly used devices in physiotherapy and pharmacy practice.
Implications: In addition to large scale IPE, which often focuses on the key principles of collaboration, smaller activities that allow the acquisition of clinical knowledge and skills from other health science students should be encouraged.
Funding acknowledgements: Unfunded
Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning
Ethics approval: Ethics approval was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Board of the University of Alberta
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
