Medical and pharmacy students' perspectives of remote synchronous interprofessional education sessions.

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional education (IPE) at university level is an essential component of undergraduate healthcare curricula, as well as being a requirement of many associated regulatory bodies. In this study, the perception of pharmacy and medical students' of remote IPE was evaluated. METHODS: A series of IPE sessions took place via Zoom and students' feedback was collected after each session. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed. RESULTS: 72% (23/32) of medical students strongly agreed that the sessions had helped to improve their appreciation of the role of pharmacists, whereas 37% (22/59) of pharmacy students strongly agreed, reporting a median response of 'somewhat agreeing', that their appreciation of the role of general practitioners had improved. This difference was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.0143). Amongst students who responded, 55% (53/97) identified remote teaching as their preferred mode of delivery for an IPE session. CONCLUSIONS: The survey demonstrated that the students valued the development of their prescribing skills as well as the ancillary skills gained, such as communication and teamwork. Remote IPE can be a practical means of improving medical and pharmacy students' understanding of each other's professional roles, as well as improving the skills required for prescribing.

Simulation in pharmacy education to enhance interprofessional education.

OBJECTIVE: Increased demands from healthcare services have led to new roles for healthcare professionals (HCPs). Simulation based learning (SBL) can offer multidisciplinary HCPs and students a format to train for such emerging roles. The aim of this work was to adapt existing nursing SBL to involve pharmacy students and evaluate perceptions and effectiveness of SBL when used for interprofessional education (IPE). METHODS: Settings were a simulated hospital ward and a general practitioner (GP) practice. Participants were pharmacy and nursing students. Evaluation was by questionnaires and interviews. Ethical approval was obtained from the University Ethics Committee. KEY FINDINGS: A total of 440 students participated. The majority of respondents (317/330;96%) found the sessions useful. All elements were highly rated: briefing (315/340;93%), setting (301/321;94%), scenario (325/338;96%), feedback (303/327;93%), interaction with the "patient" (328/338;97%), interactions with other HCP trainee (293/329;89%). The majority (304/327;93%) agreed that they felt the sessions had enhanced their skills. Significant (p ≤ 0.05) enhancement in communication confidence was perceived by the students. Students gained understanding of each other's roles, and appreciated practicing communication and teamwork. CONCLUSIONS: Students recognised the importance, usefulness and need for IPE. SBL has the potential to support a variety of HCPs to facilitate uptake of new roles and working in multidisciplinary teams.