Clark Renee M, Dukes April A, Sowko Lucille, Gartner Mark
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, B-12 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 USA.
Engineering Education Research Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA USA.
Biomed Eng Educ. 2025;5(2):271-284. doi: 10.1007/s43683-025-00180-y. Epub 2025 Mar 24.
In 2018, the Department of Bioengineering and the School of Nursing at University of Pittsburgh implemented an interdisciplinary partnership that integrated senior nursing students into the bioengineering capstone Senior Design course as part of a National Institutes of Health education grant. This two-semester course requires senior Bioengineering students to synthesize and extend principles from prior coursework toward the design a medical product meeting an unmet clinical need. Senior Design teams interact with clinicians, patients, and caregivers as part of the overall design process to understand the unique challenges of medical product design, including the requirements for regulatory approval. The teams develop iterative designs, fabricate prototypes, and perform both verification and validation testing to evaluate whether product performance criteria are met. Integrating nursing and bioengineering students was anticipated to provide opportunities for interprofessional learning, earlier and more frequent clinical input to the design process, and exposure to a spectrum of unmet clinical needs. Conversely, nursing students were anticipated to gain an understanding of the medical product design process, including regulatory requirements, to potentially empower future innovativeness.
The impact of this interdisciplinary partnership on the anticipated outcomes was assessed over a five-year timeframe using research surveys and student interviews. The design self-efficacy survey was administered in a pre-post manner to assess changes in bioengineering and nursing students' confidence, motivation, success expectancy, and apprehension for performing design activity. Students' interprofessional collaborative development was also measured in a retrospective pre-post manner using the interprofessional collaborative competency attainment survey. Finally, a spectrum of student interviews was conducted to obtain perspectives about the interdisciplinary partnership. The data were analyzed using statistical and qualitative data methods.
The results were overwhelmingly positive for the partnership. The results make a strong case for such partnerships and suggest benefits for both student groups, including significant effects for design confidence and a multitude of collaborative competencies. For bioengineering students, the nursing students' clinical knowledge, perspectives, suggestions related to unmet clinical needs, and feedback were mentioned by 84% of interviewees as a partnership benefit. The nursing students cited interprofessional teamwork as the most valuable benefit (71% of interviewees) and indicated that it supported their ability to be innovative.
The results make a strong case for engineering and nursing schools to pursue and establish partnerships between their students. This study is situated in the literature as part of an evolving trend of partnership between these two professions.
2018年，匹兹堡大学的生物工程系和护理学院实施了一项跨学科合作项目，作为美国国立卫生研究院教育拨款的一部分，将护理专业高年级学生纳入生物工程专业的顶点课程——毕业设计课程。这门为期两个学期的课程要求生物工程专业的高年级学生综合并拓展之前课程中的原理，以设计出一款满足未被满足的临床需求的医疗产品。在整个设计过程中，毕业设计团队与临床医生、患者及护理人员进行互动，以了解医疗产品设计的独特挑战，包括监管审批的要求。团队开发迭代设计、制作原型，并进行验证和确认测试，以评估是否满足产品性能标准。预计整合护理专业和生物工程专业的学生会为跨专业学习提供机会，在设计过程中更早且更频繁地获得临床意见，并接触一系列未被满足的临床需求。相反，预计护理专业学生会了解医疗产品设计过程，包括监管要求，从而有可能增强未来的创新能力。
在五年时间内，通过研究调查和学生访谈评估了这种跨学科合作对预期成果的影响。设计自我效能感调查问卷采用前后测的方式，以评估生物工程专业和护理专业学生在进行设计活动时的信心、动力、成功期望和担忧的变化。还使用跨专业协作能力达成调查问卷，以回顾性前后测的方式衡量学生的跨专业协作发展情况。最后，进行了一系列学生访谈，以获取有关跨学科合作的观点。使用统计和定性数据方法对数据进行了分析。
该合作的结果总体上是积极的。这些结果有力地证明了这种合作的合理性，并表明对两个学生群体都有益处，包括对设计信心和多种协作能力产生显著影响。对于生物工程专业的学生，84%的受访者提到护理专业学生的临床知识、观点、与未被满足的临床需求相关的建议以及反馈是合作的好处。护理专业学生将跨专业团队合作视为最有价值的好处（71%的受访者），并表示这支持了他们的创新能力。
这些结果有力地证明了工程学院和护理学院应推动并建立两校学生之间的合作关系。作为这两个专业之间不断发展的合作趋势的一部分，本研究在相关文献中具有一定地位。
