Jyotsna Pandey, Central Michigan University

Title: Interprofessional Education and Student Understanding of Their Future Roles and Responsibilities as Health Professionals

Research Team: Andrew Nowak, JD, MS2: CMU College of Medicine Student Collaborator Britanny Hamama, MS2: CMU College of Medicine Student Collaborator Gabrielle Kennelley, MSc, MS2: CMU College of Medicine Student Collaborator Jyotsna Pandey, MD, PhD: CMU College of Medicine, Mentor and Principal Investigator

Interprofessional education (IPE) brings together students from different disciplines so that they can learn more about one another’s roles and responsibilities in their future professional fields. IPE is especially important for students entering the healthcare field, wherein patient care and outcomes are dependent upon the collaboration of numerous care providers, including physicians, nurses, physician associates, and physical therapists, among others. Each care provider offers a unique set of skills and knowledge. Because high-quality patient care is dependent upon the efficient and productive teamwork of various disciplines, IPE should be included in the curriculum for health professions students. IPE allows students to gain a greater understanding of their future peers from other disciplines while also building trust, respect, and appreciation among team members. IPE also allows students to better understand their own roles and responsibilities on a healthcare team, as well as those of others. Additionally, students will be better prepared to voice their ideas, prevent, or resolve team conflicts, and collaborate to reach a common goal—improved patient care. After undergoing our own IPE training and developing a greater appreciation of the role and responsibilities of other healthcare disciplines, we recognized the importance of researching the ideas and attitudes of other students regarding IPE. Such knowledge can assist in the continued development of IPE programs, which will better prepare students to work with diverse colleagues in a patient-centered team setting.

Dawn DeVries, Grand Valley State University

Title: Nursing and Recreational Therapy Approach to Restorative and Falls Prevention in a Skilled Nursing Facility  

Older adults who fall are more likely to experience life-limiting injuries and even death, with one in three nursing home residents falling two or more times a year (AHRQ, 2017). A variety of reasons contribute to falls and one solution to reduce the risk of falls is a falls prevention program that includes strength, balance, and range of motion exercises. For the proposed project, Nursing and Recreational Therapy will together create and implement a Restorative Nursing program in a skilled nursing facility. The shared objective, to reduce and prevent falls among older adults, will be achieved through shared decision-making and responsibility, which will be supported by this $1,000 mini-grant request. Staff at Mission Point of Belding and GVSU Recreational Therapy faculty will collaborate to overcome barriers to interprofessional care and develop exercise and walking programs where restorative nursing aides and the recreational therapist work together twice a week to improve the functioning of older adults. Program criteria, goals, assessment procedures, and intervention protocols will be developed for this fall prevention program. The facility will be able to sustain the program, and potentially replicate it to other Mission Point facilities.

Denise Ludwig, Grand Valley State University

Title: An Examination of Instructional Strategies Used in Interprofessional Education

The purpose of this project is to examine the instructional strategies used to teach health and education profession students about the roles of health care and education professionals using interprofessional [IPE] case study simulation events. (IPEC 2016) Interprofessional education andragogy requires adherence to principles of alternative instructional methods, repetition, and feedback. The goals of this project are to examine and compare the pedagogical approaches that are perceived as effective in preparing health profession and education students to participate in a workforce that requires interprofessional collaborative practice and to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction methods using comparative learning data. Two IPE case study simulation events will be provided in both a virtual/remote format and an in-seat format, as allowed. The project includes the use of three instructional strategies to be evaluated for effectiveness by students from the Colleges of Health Professions, Education, and Community and Public Services.