The Interprofessional Showcase

Evaluating an event to increase professional understanding and collaboration

Abstract

Traditional didactic instruction is not an effective means to provide the interprofessional education that health and human services professional students need. This paper describes a college event aimed at engaging undergraduate and graduate students from several academic departments in interprofessional collaboration. Participants toured and interacted in academic spaces of other professional disciplines to gain an understanding of these professional roles. Interprofessional collaboration was demonstrated and experienced in these spaces and in the group discussions that followed these activities. A series of micro-vignettes, questions, and road blocks provided problems for participants to solve in interprofessional groups. Pre-post comparison surveys indicated that participants increased in their understanding of their professional role and the role of others in health care and community settings. An improved understanding of the benefits and challenges of interprofessional teams was achieved and participants felt more confident in their ability to work in these teams at job or internship sites.