Launching into interprofessional education: graduate students learning and growing together

Interprofessional education (IPE) is vital in university clinical settings to prepare graduate students to engage in today’s health care system. However, few university programs have successfully implemented IPE into existing clinical programs. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an interprofessional (IP) training and clinical experience on graduate students’ and caregivers perceptions on quality of care in a pre-existing clinical program. Speech-language pathology (SLP) and Physical Therapy (PT) faculty, worked to coordinate and develop an IP training and clinical experience. Graduate students from both disciplines participated in the IP training and completed a pre-post training questionnaire. Students then participated in an IP clinical experience with three preschool-age children with complex sensory motor needs and completed the questionnaire again following this experience. Students’ attitudes and perceptions of readiness for IP engagement following IPE training showed a positive trend but not following an IP clinical experience. Subjective feedback from students and caregivers was highly favorable. The results provide further evidence of the benefits of IP training and clinical experience. More effective qualitative and quantitative tools must be developed to capture the effectiveness of direct IP clinical collaboration.