What Happens when an Interprofessional Team Immersion Program Goes Virtual? Adapting Interprofessional Student Learning in Response to COVID-19

The interprofessional team immersion (IPTI) is a longitudinal, curricular program that provides interactive and cross-professional learning experiences. Learning objectives are aligned with behaviors identified in the core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice and aim to increase students' understanding of each other's roles and responsibilities, apply teamwork principles and refine communication skills for person-centered care. The in-person IPTI instructional format included a team-building exercise, case-based learning, and simulation. The global coronavirus pandemic impacted program delivery and led to necessary adaptation to an online format. Specific changes included shifting to online formats for training sessions in motivational interviewing (MI) and telehealth, team-building and case-based learning, and virtual simulation. The online format also allowed the formation of a multi-institutional collaboration. The IPTI program was redesigned as an immersive, longitudinal virtual experience, offered over a 7-month period between September 2020 to March 2021. Student teams across two Universities and ten health professions participated in the virtual sessions and simulations. Health professions faculty from both Universities facilitated the interprofessional student teams. Pre-, Retrospective-Pre and Post-session evaluation responses measured students' knowledge and skills in MI, telehealth and the IPEC competencies. All items for the MI and telehealth scales and the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) showed significant increases in mean ratings using paired t-tests (p < 0.01). A similar increase in the total ICCAS score (about 15 points) was reported for students participating in the in-person IPTI programming in previous years, which suggests similar knowledge and skill gains can be achieved with the online modality. These findings provide evidence that IPE programming and training can be effectively delivered through online formats which can be leveraged to successfully facilitate multi-institutional collaboration.