Partnering with Patients in the Creation of Online Resources for Interprofessional Education

Rationale: Collaborative practice happens when healthcare professionals work together with

patients and families to deliver the highest quality of care. This is the optimal model for

paediatric care, with children and families included as partners within the healthcare

team. Interprofessional education (IPE) is seen as a necessary step towards collaborative

practice. We sought to explore how best to prepare our students for paediatric

collaborative practice, harnessing the unique interprofessional learning opportunities in

paediatric care. This also required navigating logistical IPE challenges such as

asynchronous curricula, unequal class sizes and delivery across international campuses.

Methods: We collaborated with a parent in creating case-based online IPE. Videos of the

parent/child in consultations with a paediatrician, pharmacist, physiotherapist and

speech and language therapist were recorded and embedded into an interactive

Articulate Storyline® package. Pre-post MCQs and key teaching points covered a range

of issues including developmental stages, medication administration and complex

communication.

Findings: Medical students are currently engaging with the online IPE on a rotational basis and

student reaction to the learning is ongoing. Delivery in the pharmacy and physiotherapy

curriculum is planned. Currently the learning outcomes for interprofessional

collaborative practice are, therefore, obtained unprofessionally.

Discussion / Conclusion

The patient-centred online interprofessional activity has provided an opportunity to begin to prepare our students for paediatric collaborative practice. We intend to explore further progression towards learning with others and evaluate the outcomes at a higher level.