Abstract

As the healthcare system has continued to change in the 21st century, the creation of a more collaborative practice-ready workforce is necessary. Interprofessional education (IPE) is an accepted mechanism to cultivate interprofessional collaborative practice in health care providers to improve quality of care and address workforce needs. Development of interprofessional collaborative practice requires synergies of the health care and education systems to develop and deliver an effective IPE curriculum. This study examined the impact of an IPE curriculum on the clinical practice of physical therapy doctoral students through a mixed-methods approach. The IPE curriculum was rooted in the established Interprofessional Learning Continuum and linked to core competencies from the Interprofessional Education Collaborative. Quantitative procedures examined student clinical performance in the immediate internship following completion of the curriculum, and these criteria were compared to historical norms. Qualitative procedures sought to determine if areas of clinical performance were influenced by the curriculum and examine how students translated learning into the clinical environment. The results of this study identified numerous areas of significant impact of interprofessional learning on patient care in the clinical environment, although none of the quantitative measures identified significant differences. Several salient themes were identified which recognize the multidimensional nature of patient care in the complex clinical environment, involving an interplay of communication, experience, role understanding, and interprofessional interactions all being strongly developed within the IPE curriculum. These findings contribute to the literature calling for mixed methods analyses of influences of IPE of health care students on clinical practice in order to better understand and further develop interprofessional practice.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2020

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Cox, Thomas

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

School of Teacher Education

Degree Program

Education; Higher Education Track

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0008212; DP0023566

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0023566

Language

English

Release Date

August 2020

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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