An Innovation Sprint as Method to Promote Interprofessional Skills Among Pharmacy and Public Health Students

Helping students to develop creative problem-solving skills and to work with other professions to come up with novel solutions is a key part of interprofessional collaboration (IPC). Innovation sprints are considered to be a novel pedagogy where small, diverse groups of students gather to find innovative solutions to problems within a given field. At the University at Buffalo Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) and Master of Public Health (MPH) students worked together to address the problem of medication adherence among low-income patients using an innovation sprint. A total of 133 students participated in the innovation sprint, with 127 students completing the post-program survey (response rate=95%). A post-program survey that consisted of several items including five background questions, the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS), seven retrospective pre-and post- rating questions related to self-awareness, creativity, and problem-solving, four items evaluating their group, and seven questions evaluating the program that included two open-ended free-text response questions. It was found that after participating in the sprint, students rated their experience as a positive one, including having higher competency ratings post-sprint and overall positive ratings of engaging with team members. Qualitative results further supported the aspects of teamwork and creative problem-solving. When comparing the two professions, larger effect sizes were seen for Public Health students than for Pharmacy students. Utilizing an innovation sprint approach to interprofessional education can help to meet standards in the pharmacy curriculum and facilitate communication and collaboration among students from different professions. This innovative method of engagement is saleable and able to be expanded to other professions in the future.