Building interdisciplinary teamwork among allied health students through live clinical case simulations.

A limited, yet growing, body of research suggests that health care students educated in interdisciplinary teamwork may become more collaborative professionals in the workplace, which, in turn, may foster more productive and satisfied health care professionals. Researchers also have identified lower mortality and morbidity rates, fewer hospitalizations, decreased costs, and improved function by patients among significant health benefits of interdisciplinary teamwork, especially when it is applied to underserved and geriatric populations. Such positive outcomes have prompted medical schools and accreditation boards of many allied health professions to add interdisciplinary education into their training requirements. Meeting these requirements has challenged universities, where there are multiple allied health programs and limited time, faculty, and financial resources to coordinate interdisciplinary education. The challenges have been magnified by insufficient research on the most effective methods to educate university students about interdisciplinary teamwork. This article presents the background, evolution, and key building blocks of one such method: a simulation-based workshop designed at our university over 7 years to educate its allied health students about various health professions through shared learning, interaction, and collaboration.

Exploring the cultural adaptability of doctoral entry-level physical therapist students during clinical education experiences.

Cultural competence is an essential component of health care education. The aim of this study was to explore the development of cultural competence in 14 physical therapist students during their final, 23 weeks of clinical education (CE) experiences. A mixed methods design was used to quantitatively measure and qualitatively describe cultural adaptability as an indicator of cultural competence. Subjects completed the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) at the end of their didactic curriculum and again at the end of their CE experiences. Constant comparative methods were used to analyze written narrative summaries of how students made meaning of their cultural encounters. The students exhibited statistically significant changes in the total CCAI score (paired t-test: p < 0.001), and three CCAI subscales: emotional resilience (paired t-test: p < 0.002), flexibility/openness (paired t-test: p < 0.003), and perceptual acuity (paired t-test: p < 0.001). There was not a statistically significant change in the fourth CCAI subscale, personal autonomy. Qualitatively, four themes emerged that described students' cultural encounters with patients, families, and co-workers: recognizing cultural descriptors; consideration of feelings, values, attitudes and beliefs; effective communication to breakdown barriers; and awareness of strategies for current and future cross-cultural practice. Clinical cultural encounters are important in the progression toward cultural competence in physical therapist students. Changes in attitude appear to be key in effective cultural encounters as students learn to communicate and connect with anyone perceived to be different from them.