During the summer of 2013, the University of Missouri – St. Louis piloted an interprofessional education program, which included a half day training simulation that taught students in the health professions to work together as a team through the use of actors as simulated patients.
The ability to collaborate on a case and interact in a team conference situation is an important interdisciplinary competency (i.e., where professionals from different disciplines present their views of a case and work together towards a unified care or treatment plan).
A team case exercise has been developed which will include two actors: one to play a 70 year-old man with uncontrolled diabetes, and the other is to play the daughter who accompanies him to his medical appointments.
Students are grouped into teams representing optometry, nursing, social work, and gerontology. Each team views an interactive simulation that allows team members to ask questions; following this simulation, the team drafts up a care plan for the patient.
If this program proves successful, the team exercise could then be the first offering in an eventual menu of training exercises. In addition, overlapping courses in these four disciplines (optometry, nursing, social work, gerontology) have been identified. The program hopes to begin integrating students from various disciplines into these courses so that they interact in a more natural environment as well as in the planned simulation exercise.
* Please note: Information contained in this database is self-reported by representatives from each program. It does not represent an exhaustive list of education and training programs and inclusion does not constitute an endorsement from the PCPCC.
