INTRODUCTION Understanding athletic trainers’ (ATs) perceptions of and experiences with interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) can help improve their interactions with other healthcare professionals. The purpose of this study was to explore ATs’ perceptions (beliefs, benefits, barriers), experiences and recommended strategies related to IPCP.METHODS 314 ATs (139 male, 175 female) completed an online survey that collected participant demographics in addition to sections about participants’ perceptions experiences related to IPCP and recommended strategies implementation of IPCP.RESULTS Participants reported the primary sports medicine team should include ATs, orthopedic physicians and physical therapists (PTs) with the AT serving as the point person. Athletic trainers reported interacting most frequently with other ATs, orthopedic physicians and primary care physicians using a combination of direct and indirect communication methods. The primary benefits of IPCP included providing comprehensive patient care, building understanding of each other’s professions and professional growth. Barriers to collaboration centered on limited knowledge of providers’ scopes of training, inadequate communication, work setting, work schedules and providers’ attitudes toward each other and collaboration. Strategies to facilitate IPCP focused on building relationships with providers, establishing regular communication and understanding each other’s scope of training.CONCLUSION Currently, ATs interact with other healthcare providers and have positive perceptions of IPCP. It is recommended that ATs build on the current relationships and aim to enhance them through purposeful communication.

Introduction Speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and registered dietitian nutritionists are intricately involved in the management of feeding and swallowing disorders. An interprofessional education (IPE) event was held with graduate level students from these disciplines as an opportunity to practice professional collaboration around the topic of food intake. The purpose of this study was to assess the change in these healthcare students’ perceptions of interprofessional collaboration following the interactive IPE event to determine the benefits of incorporating IPE into the curriculum. Methods 128 students, across three healthcare disciplines (speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and dietetics), participated in an online survey before and after the IPE event regarding their attitudes toward interprofessional healthcare teams. The IPE event focused on feeding and swallowing, included lectures from professors representing each discipline, and featured an interactive lab portion highlighting the role each discipline plays in the treatment of feeding and swallowing disorders. Results Overall, students’ perceptions of interprofessional collaboration across all three departments significantly increased after the IPE event, suggesting that students considered the IPE event to be a beneficial experience. Considerable improvement was noted on questions regarding the individual role and others’ roles in an interdisciplinary setting. Conclusion These findings suggest that formal IPE events improve students’ perceptions and understanding of how a collaborative team works together using each discipline’s scope of practice.

INTRODUCTION Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE) simulation is an innovative teaching methodology to demonstrate the obstacles and challenges of poverty that contribute to those risks. The aim of the study was to evaluate the change in attitudes regarding people living in poverty among interprofessional health science students. METHODS Medicine, nursing, pharmacy and rehabilitation therapy students in the 2018 Interprofessional Education class (N=100) were enrolled. Interprofessional student teams were assigned family roles, given limited resources and simulated poverty challenges such as unemployment, childcare concerns, limited access to healthy food, and incarceration. A pre- and post-simulation survey measured changes in participants’ poverty awareness consisting of three domains - identifying barriers to poverty, confidence in one’s ability to address poverty, and likelihood to engage in behaviors to address poverty. The post survey also included questions on insights gained and recognition of organizational systems that perpetuate poverty. Statistical analysis including descriptive statistics and paired t-tests were conducted in SPSS-v23. RESULTS The confidence in ability domain that included understanding obstacles, identifying key issues and having impact showed a significant difference between pre-test (M=8.63, SD= 1.71) and post-test (M=9.31, SD=1.90). However, no significant change was reported for identifying barriers and likelihood to engage in behaviors to address poverty. Additionally, in post-survey, more than 90% students reported increased mindfulness of poverty, self-reflection, and recognize that organizational systems create and perpetuate poverty. CONCLUSION Poverty immersive simulation experience is an essential education tool, as it motivates critical selfreflection and improves one’s confidence to engage in addressing poverty.