Nursing and medical students teaming up: Results of an interprofessional project

ABSTRACTHealth professions programmes are increasing the number of interprofessional events in their curricula. Many of these programmes are grounded in case study or simulation events in order to prepare students for eventual practice. We designed an interprofessional education collaborative practice (IPECP) that provides direct interprofessional practice experience while students are still in their health profession programmes. In our programme, teams of senior baccalaureate nursing and third-year medical students provided health coaching to patients in need of chronic disease management. The purpose of the project and study was to determine whether repeated exposure to opportunities for interprofessional communication would lead to improvement in the individual and team communication skills. Teams met with their assigned patients monthly to provide coaching and had follow-up conversations with the patients between meetings. Faculty were present at each meeting to review the healthcare and coaching plan...