PHYSICAL THERAPIST STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS: LEARNING FROM A COMMUNITY-BASED, CLIENT-FOCUSED, INTERPROFESSIONAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE

McGehee W.¹, Dunleavy K.¹, Blue A.², Nicole S.³, Black E.⁴

¹University of Florida, Physical Therapy, Gainesville, United States, ²University of Florida, Office of Interprofessional Education, Gainesville, United States, ³University of Florida, Public Health, Gainesville, United States, ⁴University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, United States

Background: The Institute of Medicine and the World Health Organization have suggested that interprofessional education (IPE) is essential to prepare new health care professionals for the demands of health care delivery in the 21^st century. Interprofessional learning environments prepare individuals to work across disciplines in team-based settings to serve the complex needs of patients. The value of IPE as an educational strategy has been widely embraced but its effectiveness in improving patient care and outcomes has not been widely studied or supported. Recent research and policy analysis has focused on linking the learning outcomes of IPE to improved patient care, satisfaction, cost, and quality of care. Given the importance of this issue, designing curricula in physical therapy education programs that maximize meaningful and effective IPE opportunities is imperative.

Purpose: This study examined physical therapist students' perceptions of their learning from a year long, client-focused, interprofessional education experience (IPE) involving 8 disciplines.

Methods: Sixty-Nine Doctor of Physical Therapy students (n = 69) completed a reflection paper at the end of an IPE consisting of small group visits of students from 4 different health care disciplines with families in their homes, larger structured group discussions with faculty, and a wellness project. The students participated in 4 home visits and 6 discussion sessions completed over 2 semesters. Using a grounded theory approach, two teams of two researchers reviewed and coded the papers to identify key words and phrases to reflect meaning. All researchers then reached consensus on themes and subthemes. Triangulation of information occurred throughout the analysis and quotes that reflected the important themes were identified.

Results: Themes included 1) learning about interprofessional care (interprofessional team communication, differences in perspectives across disciplines) and 2) seeing the patient as a whole person (value of seeing the patient in their environment, connecting with patients, appreciating patient goals).

Conclusion(s): This IPE was perceived as an effective and meaningful instructional strategy that provided a realistic situated learning activity that resulted in students appreciating the need for individualized consideration of the patient as a whole person. The program described provided a rich environment for contextual learning in a community of practice in interprofessional care. With modifications to meet individual program circumstances, this experience could serve as a model for other programs interested in implementing a community-based interprofessional learning activity.

Implications: The extended period of team-based requirements embedded in this IPE fostered a deeper understanding of communication across professions and with clients, and insight into different perspectives. Additionally, this IPE experience provided a realistic and meaningful situated learning activity that resulted in students appreciating the need for individualized consideration of the patient as a whole person. The community location of the experience provided a rich opportunity that expanded student’s appreciation of the complexities and context from the consumer’s perspective. Importantly, the community based experience provided students with a viewpoint early in their education that is likely to influence future clinical skills with patients, their understanding of how the patient´s environment and soccial context influences their health, and their interaction in the future with other professionals.

Funding acknowledgements: None

Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning

Ethics approval: The study protocol was determined to be exempt by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Florida.

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