Achievement of interprofessional competencies in live and virtual community clinics: A comparative study

Abstract

Background: Interprofessional education is imperative for training future healthcare professionals. While barriers exist within and across institutions to implement and sustain effective interprofessional education experiences for students, virtual clinics utilizing electronic health records may provide comparable benefits to in-person clinics.

Objective: To determine whether differences in pre- and post-test self-assessments of interprofessional collaborative competencies are different between in-person and virtual clinics.

Design: Pretest-posttest design utilizing the Interprofessional Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey (ICCAS) before and immediately after participating in clinics, virtual or in-person.

Setting: A large, public university in the southeastern United States.

Participants: Senior nursing students, third-year pharmacy students, senior nutrition/dietetics students, and undergraduate and graduate social work students.

Methods: This study was conducted evaluating five cohorts of students engaged in interprofessional education clinics. Two cohorts completed in-person community clinics in 2019. In March 2020, the interprofessional education program adopted virtual clinics (three cohorts) utilizing pre-selected electronic health record cases. Student responses from the 20-item ICCAS, which was completed before and immediately after clinics, were aggregated into interprofessional competency subscale scores (communication, collaboration, roles and responsibilities, collaborative patient/family-centered approach, conflict management/resolution, and team functioning) and a total ICCAS score. Two-way ANOVA assessed Pre-Post and Mode (in-person vs. virtual) on total ICCAS score. t-tests compared Pre-Post ICCAS scores for each Mode.

Results: Effects of Pre-Post (p < 0.001), but not Mode (p = 0.523), were observed on Total ICCAS scores. All ICCAS subscale scores were significantly higher in Post compared to Pre regardless of Mode.

Conclusions: Virtual interprofessional education clinics confer similar benefits to interprofessional collaborative competencies in healthcare professions students compared to in-person community clinics. Thus, modality offers flexibility for interprofessional education and provided several benefits over the in-person clinic approach.

Keywords: Clinic; Competency; Interprofessional education; Practice; Virtual.