Impact of an International Service Trip on Pharmacy and Medical Learners' Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Collaboration

Overview

Journal Am J Pharm Educ

Specialty Medical Education

Date 2021 Nov 17

PMID 34785495

Authors

Hanna W Rotundo

Sharon E Connor

Kathryn B Muzzio

Alexandria M Taylor

Mark W Meyer

Lauren J Jonkman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an interprofessional medical service trip to rural Honduras on pharmacy and medical learners' attitudes toward interprofessional learning. In this mixed-methods research, 19 participating students and residents from medicine and pharmacy completed the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) before and after the service trip in fall 2017 and spring 2018. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants following each trip to better understand which aspects of the experience shaped their interprofessional learning. Following the service trip, a significant improvement was found for the Teamwork & Collaboration subscale and the Negative Professional Identity subscale of the RIPLS. Several themes emerged from interviews, including that face-to-face interaction promotes collaboration; limited resources encourage team-based problem-solving; time together outside of work strengthens interprofessional connections; participating in another profession's patient care activities fosters appreciation of individual roles; interprofessional care takes time; and participants felt a greater desire to pursue interprofessional practice in the future. Interprofessional learning during a medical service trip improved participants' attitudes toward collaboration. This study highlights which aspects of this experience contributed most to interprofessional learning, and our results may guide future efforts to design effective interprofessional education experiences.

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