Interprofessional Performance of DPT Students, as Measured by the Interprofessional Professional Assessment During the COVID 19 Pandemic

Background:
Interprofessional Education (IPE) has been established as an effective implementation for Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students to understand the roles of other healthcare providers, foster professional identity, and develop competency in providing care within a model of interprofessional collaboration. Since the development of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been numerous issues preventing proper communication between healthcare professionals. This research aims to determine if there is a difference in performance scores on the Interprofessional Professional Assessment (IPA) after completion of didactic coursework as compared to the end of the degree program and how the pandemic affected interprofessional collaboration for the Regis DPT Class of 2021.
Methods:
The cohort was evaluated by a healthcare worker outside their discipline, using the IPA, during clinical experiences in their second and third years. The IPA evaluated six core competencies: communication, respect, altruism and caring, excellence, ethics, and accountability. Corresponding questions were rated with a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, and included not observed with an option to provide qualitative feedback. Additional questions addressed whether complications arose from the COVID-19 pandemic in evaluating the student’s performance. Data was analyzed using T-tests to determine how each student compared between second and third year experiences using Microsoft Excel©. The qualitative written responses were examined for keywords to create themes.
Results:
This study looked at a group of 10 students with each student recruiting two different healthcare professionals to complete the IPA. Two separate T-Tests were run to determine differences in scores based on clinical settings (t= 0.766) and differences in scores based on student completion of didactic coursework (t=0.761). One-quarter of respondents thought COVID increased interprofessional communication, one-quarter thought it decreased, and half said COVID had no effect.
Conclusion:
This research group did not find a significant difference between IPA scores after students have completed their didactic coursework, since most students scored very high regardless of conditions. In addition, this study found compelling evidence that COVID did have a positive effect on interprofessional communication. Further research should focus on determining how interprofessional research was improved during COVID.
Reflections:
This research team had a large dropout rate due to students recruiting the incorrect type of participants. In the future studies students' choices will be screened by research staff before study inclusion.