Improving Interdisciplinary Collaboration in First-Year Health Professional Students Through a Learner-Developed and Learner-Driven IPE Curriculum

Abstract

Abstract This resource is an interprofessional health education curriculum for first-year dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and physical therapy learners. The curriculum consists of three components: two organized half-day exercises (referred to as day 1 and day 2) and a yearlong longitudinal community-based project. For each of these components, first-year learners from each of the professional schools are divided into groups of seven to eight interprofessional students and remain in the same groups for the entire yearlong curriculum. Day 1 is a 3-hour event focused on a standardized patient monologue, a health policy discussion, and an overview of the roles and responsibilities of the health professions. Day 2 centers on a patient case discussion in small breakout rooms throughout the campus. The longitudinal project has the groups choose a project description from a provided list or create their own project with the approval of the curriculum coordinators. Analysis of pre- and postassessment surveys showed that learners moved closer toward achievement of the interprofessional competencies after this curriculum had been implemented.

Keywords

• Interprofessional Education Collaboration (IPEC)
• Teamwork
• Small Group Discussion
• First-Year Learner