Moving from individual roles to functional teams: A semester-long course in case-based decision making

Incorporating meaningful interprofessional education (IPE) into curricula to better equip students to enter and shape clinical practice can be challenging. Faculty from dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and social work taught a semester-long IPE course where interprofessional teams of students collaborated in case-based decision making to learn two IPE competencies: understanding professional roles and developing teamwork skills. Pre- and post-assessments measured students' knowledge and perceptions of professional roles, individual roles on a team, and overall team functioning. Pooled data from two years of students (n = 540) showed significant improvement in familiarity with the education and roles of each discipline (p < 0.05), improvement in individual communication and teamwork skills (p < 0.05), and improved team functioning (p = 0.006). The case-based pedagogy using interprofessional student teams effectively allowed students to learn about each profession's role on the team and gain teamwork skills.