Clinical Interprofessional Education Between Dental and Pharmacy Students in a Surgical Setting to Improve Pain Management and Collaboration Skills and Behaviors

With increasing attention on addressing the national opioid crisis, new legislation and guidelines have been enacted concerning the prescribing and management of analgesic (i.e., pain) medications. Non-opioid regimens are recommended for postoperative dental surgery pain. However, many new dental graduates have insufficient standardized experiences in selecting postoperative pain management after dental procedures.

At the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), a clinical interprofessional education (IPE) pilot project involving dental and pharmacy students was developed, implemented, and evaluated to increase student clinical knowledge regarding post-surgical pain management, foster interprofessional collaboration skills and behaviors, and improve patient care via learner-led interprofessional teamwork. Before this project, dental and pharmacy students at UT Health San Antonio had limited clinical interaction.

Dental and pharmacy students provided interprofessional surgical care and postoperative pain management to geriatric dental patients, collaboratively reviewing patient dental and medical histories and medications, interviewing patients, and creating individualized postoperative pain management plans after consulting with dental and pharmacy faculty. During surgery, pharmacy students observed and assisted dental students where appropriate. Post-surgery, pharmacy students counseled patients about pain medications with assistance from dental students.
Interprofessional student teams provided 64 interventions in the dental surgery clinic. A knowledge survey demonstrated improvement in pain management knowledge in both student cohorts. Interprofessional behaviors were evaluated by faculty using the Individual Teamwork Observation and Feedback Tool (iTOFT). Student interactions were rated as appropriate or responsive using iTOFT. Post-activity feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive, and all dental students rated the collaboration as helpful or very helpful in managing patients.

This lightning talk will address the design, implementation, learner assessment, and evaluation of this innovative clinical IPE activity. Presenters will discuss logistics and barriers with insights that will assist replication efforts at other institutions, and future implications for expanding this activity.