A Pilot Study of an Interprofessional Program Involving Dental, Medical, Nursing, and Pharmacy Students

Frontiers in Public Health

article

Maryam Tabrizi¹  Wei-Chen Lee² 

[1] General Practice and Dental Public Health, School of Dentistry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, United States;Office of Health Policy and Legislative Affairs, The University of Texas Medical Branch, United States

关键词: oral health;    interprofessional education;    collaboration;    age-friendly;    public health;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2020.602957

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Objective: The silent epidemic of oral diseases disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities, especially the elderly who have complex needs for healthcare. This study was to evaluate a pilot oral health interprofessional program that provided hands-on experiences for students across four disciplines: dentistry, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. Methods: The 8-weeks program was built on four pedagogical principles: care, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration coupled with the 4Ms model: what matters, medication, mentation, and mobility. The curriculum contained four scenarios of a dental complication in an elderly: Alzheimer's Disease, oral cancer, Parkinson's Disease, and stroke. A mixed-methods approach was used to evaluate this pilot program. Results: The average score of knowledge and attitude has increased from 2.94 to 4.39 ( p < 0.05) on a 5-point Likert scale. The qualitative responses also showed that students became more confident in practicing within the Age-Friendly health system. Discussion: By the end of the program, all students recognized the significance of the interprofessional program to improve their knowledge and skills to work with professionals across disciplines. Two key features that contributed to the success of the program were (1) an interprofessional education that increased students' awareness of other types of services and (2) four scenarios that allowed students to solve the case and gain hands-on experience. Conclusion: An interprofessional education may equip students with competence to address the health of geriatric patients. Materials used in this study could be shared and adapted to prepare learners for other scenarios that require interprofessional team practice.

【 授权许可】

CC BY