By: Kaiya Hassan, PharmD, Allison A. Butler-Snider, PharmD and Michael J. Peeters, PharmD, MEd, PhD
Introduction
Interprofessional education (IPE) can be challenging due to the varied class-schedules of the health profession education programs involved. Virtual IPE has helped overcome this challenge with synchronous video-conferencing and asynchronous text-based discussion-boards or assignments.1 Herein, we describe a novel online IPE workshop designed to use asynchronous video-based discussion.
Methods
First-year health profession students at the University of Toledo are required to participate in a foundational IPE course. Thereafter, PharmD students engage in one IPE activity each semester. During this four-week didactic workshop, senior students from the nurse practitioner (NP), physician assistant (PA), and pharmacy (Rx) programs explored the roles of each profession. Students compared responsibilities of NPs and PAs and were further educated on the role of advanced clinical pharmacists.
Students were divided into small, interprofessional teams to complete the workshop activities over four weeks (7 students per team; 2NP, 2PA, and 3Rx). In week 1, students posted a self-introduction video and focused on the role and responsibilities of PAs, while Week 2 focused on the roles and responsibilities of NPs; Week 3 compared the two. Week 4 focused on the role and responsibilities of clinical pharmacists in the ambulatory care setting.
Each week, students were instructed to respond to a prompt about the weekly topic in a video-based response and create video-based replies to two teammates outside of their profession. Students had the opportunity to educate others about their profession. The video-based responses and replies were up to two minutes in length and were posted within the Flip (Microsoft Inc) platform. Students’ posts could be reviewed by team facilitators, and were assessed for participation in the group.
At the conclusion of the workshop, students completed an evaluation consisting of six close-ended and three open-ended items. Using thematic analyses,2 two investigators independently coded evaluations deductively using the definition of IPE. Themes were organized into word-clouds to visualize data, with text-size in the word-cloud corresponding to the frequency of codes3. This project had exempt IRB approval for this report.
Results
A total of 163 students (56 NP 40 PA, 67 Rx) split amongst 23 interprofessional teams participated in the workshop. The close-ended questions from the post-workshop survey are listed in Table 1. Figure 1 shows common themes from the open-ended questions. Students’ favorite parts of the workshop were “learning about” and “learning with” one another, while their least favorite parts were video communication and workshop structure. Feedback regarding student satisfaction with the structure of the workshop was conflicting as workshop design/structure was noted in both the favorite and least favorite word-clouds. Specifically, students’ opinions differed on the use of video-based discussion and the asynchronous schedule. When asked for suggestions for improvement, most students entered “none” (n = 37) or did not answer (n = 12).
Table 1: Students’ Responses to Close-Ended Items on Advanced Practice Provider Workshop Evaluation (n = 148)
| Strongly Disagree/ Disagree | Strongly Agree/ Agree | |
| Question 1: This workshop built on (extended) my roles-related knowledge for non-physician prescribers. | 8% | 92% |
| Question 2: This workshop was helpful for me. | 16% | 84% |
| Question 3: The online, asynchronous method of this workshop fit into my hectic schedule among other activities. | 6% | 94% |
Figure 1: Themes from open-ended workshop evaluation items
Discussion
Our results showed that most students found video-based discussion boards fit their variable schedules and expanded upon their knowledge of the roles of various healthcare professions. Miller et al. described a retrospective survey from their pharmacy education program where pharmacy students reported that Flip facilitated meaningful connections among students.5 Our research corroborated that students could have meaningful interactions through asynchronous, online platforms based on student satisfaction with learning with and from one another. While this video-based discussion technology appears promising, further exploration is needed to improve its utility within IPE. Reports of this technology from IPE environments at other institutions should help generalizability. Further, Swan et al. reported that social presence was enhanced by video-based discussions in an asynchronous, online course among graduate students studying Education.4 While our research did not directly assess enhanced social presence, this is a goal of video-based discussion and may be assessed in future iterations of the workshop to make comparisons to previous works.
Conclusion
This initial evidence suggests that students, using video-based responses within this online, asynchronous workshop, interacted together to learn about, with, and from one another. These findings have encouraged our continued use of Flip (Microsoft Inc.) for video-based discussions within our IPE curriculum. Students requested more robust video choices describing the professions and the opportunity to use multiple modes of communication within the Flip platform. Future iterations will incorporate this feedback to improve student satisfaction and quality of the IPE experience.
References:
- Azim A, Kocaqi E, Wojkowski S, et al. Building a theoretical model for virtual interprofessional education. Med Educ. 2022;56(11):1105-1113.
- Peeters MJ, Sexton M, Metz AE, Hasbrouck CS. A team-based interprofessional education course for first-year health professions students. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2017; 9(6): 1099-1110.
- Park S, Griffin A, Gill D. Working with words: Exploring textual analysis in medical evaluation research. Med Educ. 2012;46(4):372-380.
- Swan K, Shih LF. On the nature and development of social presence in online course discussions. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 2005;9(3):115-136.
- Miller V, Lafitte L, Terrell J. CPTL Pulses. Video Discussion Boards: The Jury is Still Out! Accessed March 31, 2023.
Author Bio(s):
Kaiya Hassan is a PGY-1 pharmacy resident at ProMedica Toledo Hospital and is completing her teaching certificate with the University of Toledo College of Pharmacy. Her interests at this time include general internal medicine topics, particularly hepatology and transitions of care. In her free time, Kaiya enjoys baking and kayaking.
Allison Butler-Snider is a recent PharmD graduate from the University of Toledo. She will be completing a PGY-1 community pharmacy residency in Parma, Ohio with University Hospitals through their UH Meds residency program. In her free time, she enjoys listening to audiobooks and spending time with her friends and family.
Michael Peeters is the Director of Interprofessional Education at the University of Toledo College of Pharmacy. Along with interprofessional education, his educational scholarship interests include educational psychometrics, learning assessments, and showing development of learners.
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