Qualitative Assessment of Student Reflections from an Early Experiential Interprofessional Activity Embedded in an Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience.

Background:
Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) accreditation standards require students to participate in both didactic and experiential interprofessional activities. Historically, within the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy (SOP), interprofessional experiential activities were reserved for advanced students who had already completed didactic interprofessional education activities and had an understanding of their roles, responsibilities, and baseline knowledge of their future profession. Introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) were revised to incorporate early didactic interprofessional activities in order to enhance students' understanding of the significance of interprofessional collaboration in providing patient-centered care in addition to assessing their comprehension of interprofessional competencies. By encouraging students to view the healthcare process in a team-centric manner during their introductory experiences, they have the opportunity to further develop their dual identity as a future pharmacist and member of an interprofessional team.
Design:
Two cohorts of second-year PharmD students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison SOP completed a 40-hour, guided, institutional IPPE that allowed students to 1) directly shadow the work of a healthcare provider from a discipline outside of pharmacy and discuss how their role intersects with the profession of pharmacy, 2) discuss interprofessional collaboration with their pharmacist preceptor, and 3) complete a written reflection on the activity by answering the question “What did you learn that can be applied towards future interactions with other healthcare professionals?”. A codebook, including themes and subthemes, was developed and content analysis was used to analyze student reflections. A data management system was used to manage data, excerpting, coding, and analysis.
Results:
Five themes mirroring the four Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) interprofessional competencies of teamwork, roles and responsibilities, communication, and values and ethics, and a work culture theme were identified, each with subthemes. Student reflections (n=218) were coded and analyzed to identify and categorize common student takeaways from the early interprofessional experiential activity and their impact on progression towards achievement of interprofessional collaborative competencies.
Conclusion:
The reflection activity allowed students to explore the role and responsibilities of another healthcare professional and reflect on the value of interprofessional teamwork and collaboration through conversations with their pharmacist preceptor. Analysis of these results shows the importance of early experiential learning with regards to student’s understanding of the importance of interprofessional teamwork. Similar models of observation, discussion, and reflection will allow for improvements of experiential education moving forward.