Health Care Professional Students' Perceptions of Teamwork and Roles After an Interprofessional Critical Care...

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Interprofessional Collaboration
• Medical Simulation

Background:

• Interprofessional learning opportunities for health care students are limited without intentional faculty facilitation.
• Developing collaborative communication and understanding of diverse roles is crucial for effective teamwork.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate how simulation-enhanced interprofessional education (Sim-IPE) impacts communication and interdisciplinary awareness among students.
• To assess the effectiveness of a critical care simulation in fostering interprofessional understanding.

Main Methods:

• A pretest-posttest design was employed, surveying undergraduate students from five health disciplines.
• The Student Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education-Revised tool measured perceptions of teamwork and roles.
• An in-depth, multistate critical care simulation experience was utilized.

Main Results:

• Student perceptions of teamwork significantly increased following the Sim-IPE intervention.
• Greater prior experience in the health care field was associated with enhanced perceptions of teamwork and role understanding.
• The critical care simulation positively influenced students' views on interprofessional collaboration.

Conclusions:

• Simulation-enhanced interprofessional education (Sim-IPE) is an effective strategy for enhancing interprofessional critical care team members' perceptions of roles and responsibilities.
• The findings suggest applicability of this teaching strategy to other specialty areas within health professions education.
• Intentional facilitation of interprofessional learning through simulation can overcome existing educational limitations.