Interprofessional Primary Care Course Curriculum and Evaluation.

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Interprofessional Education
• Primary Care Training

Background:

• Primary care (PC) necessitates robust interprofessional teamwork and training.
• While clinical training in PC is established, classroom education offers unique interprofessional learning opportunities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate an elective, interprofessional classroom course on primary care principles and practice.
• To assess student satisfaction and impact on career intentions in primary care.

Main Methods:

• An elective, one-credit primary care course was offered from 2013-2015 to students across various health professions.
• Course activities included lectures, discussions, team exercises, reflections, online engagement, and practice observation visits.
• Anonymous post-course evaluations with Likert-like scales and comments were collected.

Main Results:

• Eighty-four students enrolled; 86% completed evaluations, rating the course highly, especially the interprofessional mix and practice visits.
• 98% recommended the course, with 82% suggesting expansion and 41% advocating for it to be required.
• Post-course, 83% planned PC careers, and 56% reported a change in plans towards PC.

Conclusions:

• The primary care course successfully engaged diverse health professions students, receiving high evaluations.
• The course significantly influenced students' career plans, with a majority intending to pursue primary care.
• There is strong support for making such interprofessional primary care education a requirement for health professions students.