Interprofessional workshop to improve mutual understanding between pharmacy and medical students

Area of Science:

• Interprofessional Education
• Healthcare Collaboration
• Medical Education

Background:

• Physician-pharmacist collaboration is vital for effective healthcare delivery.
• Understanding interprofessional roles is crucial for optimal patient outcomes.
• Existing gaps in collaboration scores between medical and pharmacy students warrant investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of an interprofessional workshop on physician-pharmacist collaboration.
• To measure changes in collaboration scores among pharmacy and medical students.
• To assess the influence of an educational intervention on interprofessional understanding.

Main Methods:

• First-year pharmacy (n=215) and medical (n=205) students participated.
• The Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration was administered at baseline and post-workshop.
• Statistical analysis was used to determine changes in collaboration scores.

Main Results:

• Workshop participation significantly increased pharmacy students' collaboration scores (p=0.02).
• Medical students showed significant improvement in the education component of collaboration scores (p=0.015).
• Pharmacy students consistently demonstrated higher collaboration scores than medical students (p<0.0001).

Conclusions:

• The interprofessional workshop effectively enhanced physician-pharmacist collaboration scores for both student groups.
• Further interventions are needed to elevate medical students' collaboration scores to parity with pharmacy students.
• Improving interprofessional education is key to fostering stronger collaborative practice in healthcare.