Interprofessional telehealth simulations for pharmacy and nursing students: Development and evaluation of an online experience.

INTRODUCTION

The authors evaluated student achievement of interprofessional education (IPE) core competencies during two formats (one hybrid and one completely online) of an IPE simulation designed for pharmacy and nursing students.

METHODS

This IPE simulation was designed to teach students to use distance technologies to collaborate on patient care. In 2019, pharmacy (n = 83) and nursing (n = 38) students attended the hybrid (in-person and online) IPE simulation (SIM 2019) with the use of a telepresence robot. In 2020, pharmacy (n = 78) and nursing (n = 48) students attended the simulations completely online (SIM 2020), without the use of a robot. Both sessions aimed to achieve IPE core competencies through interprofessional student collaboration sessions using telehealth distance technologies. Students completed quantitative and qualitative evaluation surveys for both simulations. During SIM 2020, faculty and students used an observation tool to directly assess student team collaboration skills.

RESULTS

Statistically significant improvements in self-assessment of IPE core competency scores were found in both formats of the simulation sessions. There were no statistical differences in faculty ratings with student ratings of team skills using the direct observation of team collaboration. Qualitative results indicated that students found interprofessional collaboration to be the most important lesson learned from the activity.

CONCLUSIONS

Both formats for the simulation achieved core competency learning objectives. IPE is an essential experience for health care education and is achievable online.