The purposes of this project were to: 1) improve student knowledge about dementia symptoms, progression, and management strategies; and 2) improve student perceptions and attitudes towards working with interprofessional teams.
First-year Doctor of Physical Therapy and Doctor of Occupational Therapy students participated in a dementia-specific experiential learning activity (ELA) that included a brief, simulated dementia experience, educational session focused on collaborative interprofessional practice, dementia care center facility overview, and debriefing session. Students completed the Dementia Knowledge Assessment Tool, v2 (DKAT2) and the Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale (ATHCTS) pre- and post-ELA.
The DKAT2 was used to evaluate knowledge about dementia. The Shapiro-Wilk Test of normality revealed there was not normal score distribution for the DKAT2 (pre: p=.026 and post: p=.009). Therefore, we used the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. The Wilcoxon signed-ranks test indicated a significant improvement on the DKAT2 following the ELA.
The ATHCTS was used to evaluate perceptions and attitudes towards interprofessional health care teams. Both the paired t-tests (for ATHCTS total and Team Value subscale scores) and the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test (for the ATHCTS Team Efficiency subscale score) indicated a significant improvement following the ELA. Although not statistically significant, there was a positive trend (.80 improvement) for the ATHCTS Physician Role subscale score.
This dementia-specific, two-hour ELA demonstrated a significant positive impact on both student knowledge and attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration in dementia care. The increase in DKAT2 scores indicates that the educational intervention effectively enhanced students’ understanding of dementia symptoms, progression, and management strategies. The improvements seen in the ATHCTS underscore the value of interprofesional education in fostering more positive perceptions of teamwork among healthcare students.
These results underscore the importance of integrating interprofessional education into healthcare curricula to better prepare future practitioners for managing complex conditions like dementia. As the global incidence of dementia continues to rise, fostering collaborative, patient-centered care skills among healthcare professionals will be key to improving patient outcomes and enhancing the quality of care for PwD.
Providing opportunities for student exposure to interprofessional care specifically focused on PwD is critical for improving outcomes for these patients. The effectiveness of delivering this activity in an online environment suggests that comparable initiatives can be effectively implemented in diverse educational setting, potentially broadening access to essential interprofessional training in areas where in-person experiences are not feasible.
geriatrics
