An elective, interdisiplinary health care case studies course

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education,  Winter 2000  by Popovich, Nicholas G,  Wood, Olivia B,  Brooks, Jo A,  Black, David R

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This manuscript describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an elective, interdisciplinary case studies course involving pharmacy, nursing, dietetic, and health promotion/education students. Problem-based learning employing "hands on" teamwork in solving actual patient cases sensitized students to their professional role and those of other team members. Results demonstrated students' ability to work effectively in teams, and to generate ideas and achieve interdisciplinary consensus to solve patient problems. Students also demonstrated critical thinking skills and learned to function in a designated team role. The course fostered cooperation and an understanding that one profession cannot answer/address all of the patient's needs and each is integral to successful patient care.

"Team learning in an interdisciplinary setting creates changes in social and professional behavior and also creates the opportunity for important cognitive change. The importance of the interactive process that is at the heart of interdisciplinary teamwork is a critical learning catalyst. This interactive process can best be modeled by faculty who have worked together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and peer quality."

-Henri R. Manasse, Executive Vice President-Chief Executive Officer American Society ofHealth-System Pharmacists(l).

INTRODUCTION

Comprehensive care and interdisciplinary health care teams dictate that students of the health professions be prepared for the evolving trend toward integrated care(2-4). Interdisciplinary education should be utilized to provide students with a deeper understanding of professional relationships and interactions with other health care professionals. Such education should include instruction about health care professionals' roles, teamwork skills, and interaction with other health profession students(5).

Essential to an interdisciplinary program is interaction among different health profession disciplines. When students are able to interact with other health professionals (i.e., students and faculty), they may feel more comfortable relating to these individuals during the experiential component of their curricula and later on as professionals. It has been stated that space and physical proximity can influence functioning of an interdisciplinary team(5). If team members "rub elbows," communications can be enhanced(6). Typically, however, pharmacy students, for example, are not exposed to students in other health care professions until they have reached the advanced pharmacy practice component of their curriculum(7).

Duerst et al. reported an interdisciplinary education curriculum that was provided within a two-week, rural health immersion program, the Summer Institute(7). Nine students, three from each of the disciplines of pharmacy, social work, and nursing participated. Although successful in helping participating students gain an appreciation of the roles of their discipline and those of others, the prohibitive cost of the Summer Institute and an inability to accommodate more students limited the evaluation of this learning experience. Robertson and McDaniel reported a weekly, semester-long interdisciplinary course involving seven pharmacy and ten nursing students(8). However, a limitation of the study was that the pharmacy students were not contiguous to the course. Because of four-week rotations, they participated only in this limited time frame and most did not receive the first week orientation session. Furthermore, for many of the pharmacy students, this was their first direct patient care experience. While there were limitations, the course successfully brought pharmacy and nursing students together to prepare and present a patient case study.

Shepard, Yeo, and McGann identified several key components to interdisciplinary education(9). To be successful, interdisciplinary instruction should include: (i) teaching through "hands on" work with actual patient cases; (ii) sensitizing students to their professional role and the professional roles of other team members; (iii) sequencing of interdisciplinary experiences to follow establishment of one's own professional identity; (iv) modeling of interdisciplinary cooperation, collaboration, high professional standards, and teaching by disciplinary faculty; and, (v) using several episodes of interdisciplinary learning experiences over the length of the course(9). This manuscript describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an elective interdisciplinary case studies course that included these key components.

METHOD

Student Enrollment. A long-term goal of the involved faculty was to develop, implement, and evaluate an interdisciplinary case studies course involving professional students in nursing, pharmacy, foods and nutrition (i.e., dietetics), and health promotion/education. The faculty had known one another through on-campus teaching, committee assignments and interdisciplinary activities. All had voiced a desire and motivation to implement such a course for a number of years, and thus, it was time to act. To develop an interdisciplinary course, the faculty felt that enrolled students should be mature within their respective disciplines and have a significant amount of their undergraduate course work completed to effectively contribute their professional perspective and insights to the solution of patient case studies. Thus, students enrolled in this course were in their last professional, on-campus year of their curricula at Purdue University.