E-Learning with virtual teammates: A novel approach to interprofessional education

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Medical Education
• Nursing Education

Background:

• Interprofessional education (IPE) is crucial for the Triple Aim: better care, outcomes, and reduced costs.
• Barriers to traditional IPE include faculty shortages and scheduling difficulties.
• Virtual IPE interventions can address these scalability and sustainability challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of a virtual IPE intervention against a blended-learning IPE intervention.
• To assess the impact of IPE on teamwork knowledge, skills, and attitudes in pre-licensure health profession students.

Main Methods:

• A pre-test and post-test design was employed.
• Two comparison groups: blended-learning IPE (2011) and virtual IPE (2012).
• Data analyzed using one-sample and independent-sample t-tests for 760 learners (220 blended, 540 virtual).

Main Results:

• No significant differences in outcomes between virtual and blended IPE, except for medical students' attitudes toward team value.
• Virtual IPE demonstrated comparable effectiveness to blended learning for most teamwork competencies.
• Virtual IPE is a viable method for foundational teamwork knowledge acquisition.

Conclusions:

• Virtual interprofessional education is an effective, scalable, and sustainable method for teaching teamwork skills to health profession students.
• This approach can help overcome traditional barriers to implementing IPE.
• Virtual IPE supports the goal of improving healthcare through better-trained professionals.