Effect of a Clinical Case-Study Course on Physician Assistant and Pharmacy Students' Interprofessional Care Competencies.

Abstract

To examine how the implementation of a year-long interprofessional clinical case course for pharmacy and physician assistant (PA) students affects student self-reported interprofessional collaboration-related competencies in 6 skill areas (communication, collaboration, roles and responsibilities, collaborative patient/family-centered approach, conflict management/resolution, and team functioning) and whether outcomes differed between the 2 professions. Pharmacy and PA students completed the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) at the beginning and end of a year-long interprofessional, team-based clinical case course. Survey results were compared using a mixed-design analysis of variance model to determine the effect the course had on students' self-reported competencies of interprofessional care and whether the outcomes differed between student groups. One-hundred fifteen students completed both the presurvey and postsurvey. Significant improvement in student self-reported team-based behaviors were noted in 11 of the 20 ICCAS items, and results were similar among student groups. This study demonstrates that an interactive, interprofessional clinical case course can positively change student self-reported team-based behaviors.