Online simulation-based education in graduate education: Initial implementation and content revision description.

Abstract

Treating those with mental illness frequently requires collaboration among health care providers from different disciplines as well as easy access to care. Neither interprofessional collaboration (IPC) nor accessible care can be assumed to automatically occur or be available in the busy health care environment. Early and deliberate exposure of graduate students in health care disciplines to interprofessional educational activities is imperative to strengthen IPC. Empirical evidence supports the linkage between interprofessional education (IPE) early-on in training and IPC. Additionally, early and focused training of graduate students in health care disciplines to telebehavioral health (TBH) can help promote care access. The current literature supports TBH as an effective treatment approach that enhances access to care. Thus, the creation of educational activities for graduate students in health care disciplines that use early exposure and training in both: IPE and TBH approaches to enhance IPC can position future providers to provide quality patient care, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic implications on health care and education. This article describes the authors' experience in implementing and evaluating an interprofessional, simulation-based educational activity in psychopharmacology using a TBH approach in graduate nursing and psychology students. This quality improvement process used the plan-do-study-act cycle of continuous quality improvement to establish the initial implementation and the 11 steps of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning standards of best practice to then refine this educational activity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).