Positive Health Online

Abstract

MESZAROS and COLLEAGUES, College of Pharmacy, Touro University California, Vallejo, CA 94592-1187, USA. kmeszaro@touro.edu conducted an exercise designed to promote interprofessional collaboration across 3 health science colleges in California.

Background

Thirty-nine volunteer students from 3 health science colleges at Touro University California participated in an exercise designed to promote interprofessional collaboration.

Methodology

In the event, thirteen 3-person multidisciplinary teams of students identified potential medical errors in a series of case-based scenarios.

Results

In an immediate post-event survey, 33 of 39 respondents (85%) indicated that the exercise marked the first time that they had worked on clinical problems with students from other health professions. All respondents agreed that interprofessional education was useful and necessary. A 6-month follow-up survey had 24 respondents, 9 of whom (38%) indicated that the experience helped them in interprofessional communications in their clinical rotations. Twenty-two respondents (92%) recalled that all team members were involved in the selection of answers. Respondents reported that team answer selections were made by consensus (12 [50%]), by accepting the opinion of an ‘expert’ on the team (9 [38%]), or by majority vote (3 [13%]).

Conclusion

Since this exercise, there has been a surge of interprofessional activities at Touro University California, including steps toward the implementation of campus-wide interprofessional education.

References

Meszaros K, Lopes IC, Goldsmith PC and Knapp KK. Interprofessional education: cooperation among osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, and physician assistant students to recognize medical errors. Source Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. 111(4): 213-8. Apr 2011.