An interprofessional education initiative: Introducing a local anesthesia dental course for nurse practitioner and physician assistant students.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of local anesthesia (LA) course for physician assistant (PA) and adult gerontology-acute care nurse practitioner (NP) program students on knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and intention to incorporate skills in clinical practice. METHODS: The course was conducted by dental faculty for forty-eight PA and seven NP students and consisted of two lecture hours on anatomy of the oral cavity, anesthesia and pain management, 2 hours of preclinic lab where participants practiced injection technique on mannikins, and a clinical practicum conducted by dental school faculty and residents where students observed dental treatment including administration of LA, and discussed symptom triage by NPs and PAs for patients with dental problems including orofacial pain, initial management including LA, and patient referral to dentists. An online survey was administered to all students before and after the course to assess changes in knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and intention to incorporate LA administration skills into clinical practice and elicit students' perception of program quality. Pre- to post-changes were analyzed by two-tailed t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with significance at 0.05. RESULTS: The response rate for pre- and post-course assessment was 96.4% and 87.3% respectively. Students' overall scale score for self-assessment of dental knowledge increased significantly from pre- (2.34) to post-assessment (4.19). An increase was seen in students' attitudes regarding management of dental emergencies (t = 2.181; p < 0.05). Furthermore, overall confidence of students related to managing patients with dental problems increased significantly (2.00 to 3.85) after taking the course. CONCLUSION: The LA course was well received by PA and NP students and resulted in increased knowledge and confidence in recognizing common oral health conditions, understanding dental pain management including administration of LA, and making referrals to dentists to optimize patient care.

Interprofessional communication in medical simulation: findings from a scoping review and implications for academic medicine.

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional communication is fundamental to the delivery of healthcare and can be taught in medical school and other health professional schools through interprofessional education (IPE) activities. Simulation centers have become a predominant location for simulation IPE activities with infrastructure able to support high fidelity activities in a controlled environment. In this secondary analysis of a scoping review conducted on simulation-based IPE, we describe the characteristics of previously reported simulation IPE activities involving undergraduate medical students in a simulation center focused on interprofessional communication. METHODS: Electronic searches of PubMed, CINAHL, and ERIC databases in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines were conducted to isolate relevant articles from 2016-2020. In total, 165 peer-reviewed articles met inclusion criteria and data extraction linked to four research questions was applied by one individual and the accuracy was confirmed by a second individual. A secondary analysis was performed to describe what existing approaches for simulation IPE in simulation center settings have been used to explicitly achieve interprofessional communication competencies in undergraduate medical education. A sub-dataset was developed from the original scoping review and identified 21 studies describing simulation IPE activities that took place in dedicated simulation centers, targeted the IPEC interprofessional communication domain, and involved undergraduate medical students. RESULTS: Though diverse, the majority of simulation IPE activities described high-fidelity approaches involving standardized patients and utilized assessment tools with established validity evidence in IPE activities to measure learning outcomes. A minority of simulation IPE activities were described as hybrid and utilized more than one resource or equipment for the activity and only two were longitudinal in nature. Learning outcomes were focused predominantly on modification of attitudes/perceptions and few targeted higher levels of assessment. CONCLUSIONS: Educators charged with developing simulation IPE activities for medical students focused on interprofessional communication should incorporate assessment tools that have validity evidence from similar activities, target higher level learning outcomes, and leverage hybrid models to develop longitudinal simulation IPE activities. Though an ideal environment to achieve higher level learning outcomes, simulation centers are not required for meaningful simulation IPE activities.

Simulation interprofessional education in health professions education: a scoping review protocol.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this scoping review is to identify, collate, and map the evidence on simulation interprofessional education activities in any setting for the education of health professional students. INTRODUCTION: Simulation interprofessional education activities comprise in-person and collaborative online learning embedded in formal curricula. Though the number of simulation interprofessional education activities has increased with the knowledge of the importance of effective interprofessional collaboration, the literature still lacks a description of the characteristics of existing activities. INCLUSION CRITERIA: This scoping review will consider interprofessional education activities taking place within a simulation environment. Included papers will report on activities with two or more types of learners in health professional programs. METHODS: The proposed scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Databases searched will include PubMed, CINAHL, and ERIC. Results will be limited to English-language publications from 2016 to the present year. Data extraction will be performed using a purposefully developed data extraction tool. Teams of reviewers will screen abstracts and full texts of articles for potential inclusion, and decisions will be determined via consensus of two out of three reviewers. Extracted data will be presented in diagrammatic or tabular form in a manner that aligns with the objective of this scoping review. A narrative summary will accompany the tabulated and/or charted results and will describe how the results relate to the review's objective and questions, and how the results might inform future simulation interprofessional education activities in health professions education.