Health Professions Students' Assessment of an Interprofessional Rural Public Health-Focused Rotation: A Pilot Study Based on the Community-Oriented Primary Care Approach

Patrik Johansson; Devin Nickol; Shannon Maloney; Brandon Grimm; Melissa Tibbits; Mohammad Siahpush; Armando De Alba Rosales; Elizabeth Lyden; Caitlin Schneider; Jaime Gofin

doi:10.1177/2382120520932549

Health Professions Students' Assessment of an Interprofessional Rural Public Health-Focused Rotation: A Pilot Study Based on the Community-Oriented Primary Care Approach

J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2020 Jun 28:7:2382120520932549. doi: 10.1177/2382120520932549. eCollection 2020 Jan-Dec.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH), Department of Medical Education and Clinical Sciences, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University, Seattle, WA, USA.
² Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
³ Department of Health Promotion, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
⁴ Office of Public Health Practice, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
⁵ Center for Collaboration on Research Design and Analysis (CCORDA), Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
⁶ East Central District Health Department, Columbus, NE, USA.
⁷ Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.

Abstract

Using a community-oriented primary care (COPC) approach, the format for this interprofessional rural rotation was a public health focused team project based in a local health department and primary care setting. The target audience included fourth-year dental students, fourth-year undergraduate students in imaging science, second-year master of public health students, third-year medical students enrolled in the MD/MPH program, second-year nurse practitioner students, fourth-year pharmacy students, second-year MSN nursing students, and first-year PhD students. The specific learning objectives of the curriculum were drawn from emphasis areas of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative's competency domains and included the development of students' knowledge to function as a member of an interprofessional team to (1) engage diverse health care professionals, (2) communicate with team members to clarify each member's responsibility in executing components of a public health intervention, (3) choose effective communication tools and techniques, (4) integrate knowledge and experience of other professions, and (5) engage themselves and others to constructively manage disagreements. Additional learning objectives centered on 10 competencies from the Master's Degree in Public Health Core Competency Project. Assessment of 13 student participants, as a group, showed increased perceived knowledge in 4 out of 5 selected interprofessional emphasis areas and 9 out of 10 public health competencies. Our curriculum provides promising evidence for one interprofessional rural education model with proven short-term effectiveness among six health professions disciplines, in increasing student knowledge in interprofessional emphasis areas and public health competencies.

Keywords: Interprofessional health professions education; community-oriented primary care; public health; rural.