Dyspnea in a Hospitalized Patient: Using Simulation to Introduce Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Concepts

Improved team communication is essential in preventing errors in patient care. Based on TeamSTEPPS concepts, we developed this simulation case scenario to engage learners from various health care professions in interprofessional teamwork. The case was developed for graduating medical, physician assistant, and nursing students with clinical experience, as well as pharmacy students just beginning clinical rotations.

Learners are evenly distributed into groups based on their professional training to provide an opportunity to function as a team. Faculty receive case materials prior to the day they will be volunteering and receive just-in-time training to refresh medical management knowledge and to prepare them for interprofessional facilitation, debriefing, and team skills. Faculty start by introducing interprofessional teamwork skills based on TeamSTEPPS concepts and providing an activity in which teams compete to create the longest paper chain. Next, faculty run a scenario featuring a standardized patient or high-fidelity manikin developing dyspnea in a simulated hospital setting. Learners can use skills from their profession-specific education as well as theoretical knowledge while demonstrating interprofessional communication skills during the simulation.

Overall, 1,475 students have been trained with this resource over the last 5 years. Evaluations completed by learners postsimulation have rated this resource favorably. This resource has equivalent outcomes to two other scenarios also in the workshop series, indicating that using this resource alone will meet the workshop objectives.

This simulation experience advances the work of interprofessional education in developing increased self-efficacy in learners to be able to implement team skills and work in an interprofessional team.