Interprofessional education between dentistry and pharmacy students: delivery, barriers and facilitating implementation

A Cross-Sectional Survey Exploring Australian Pharmacists' and Students' Management of Common Oral Mucosal Diseases

BACKGROUND

Oral mucosal conditions are commonly experienced in the general population and can have a negative impact on one's quality of life. This study evaluated the ability of Australian pharmacists and final-year pharmacy students to recognise and manage these common oral mucosal diseases through the use of case vignettes.

METHODS

Australian pharmacists and final-year pharmacy students were invited through social media, university learning management systems, or email to complete an online questionnaire consisting of six case vignettes covering topics relating to common oral mucosal presentations.

RESULTS

A total of 65 pharmacists and 78 students completed the questionnaire. More than 50% of the participants reported having seen all types of oral mucosal presentations, except for denture stomatitis, in their practice. The provision of best practice recommendations was reported by only 14%, 15%, 8%, and 6% of the participants for geographic tongue, hairy tongue, angular cheilitis, and denture-associated stomatitis, respectively, whereas 82% offered an appropriate anti-viral treatment for cold sore and 33% provided the best practice recommendations for oral thrush.

CONCLUSION

This study emphasised the importance of further developing and integrating best practice oral healthcare training programs specifically tailored to the Australian pharmacy profession.

Evaluating an interprofessional pharmacy and dental hygiene case-based learning activity with student reflections

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interprofessional collaboration between dentistry and pharmacy has great value but is often lacking in didactic and experiential education, particularly in dental hygiene programs.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING

A case-based interprofessional assignment was implemented into the dental hygiene curriculum. Students reflected on their experiences and completed the International Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey (ICCAS) to assess changes in self-reported interprofessional competencies following the activity.

FINDINGS

Reflections revealed knowledge gain themes, with medication-related oral health concerns most frequent (53), followed by systemic adverse effects of medications (31), impact of systemic health on oral health (21), drug-drug interactions (17), and drug information (2). Additionally, students identified both future plans to collaborate with a pharmacist (25) and application of clinical knowledge gained (25). Scores from the ICCAS increased significantly in most of the domain statements following the interprofessional activity.

DISCUSSION

This interprofessional education (IPE) activity increased student knowledge of the pharmacy profession and provided an experience with interprofessional communication. Students identified the impact of medications on oral health, as well as the value of interprofessional collaboration and communication.

SUMMARY

This IPE activity positively impacted student perceptions of interprofessional collaboration with pharmacists.

Readiness for Interprofessional Education Among Health Profession Students in a University in the United Arab Emirates

Introduction

Inter-Professional Education (IPE) is an educational engagement between students from two or more professions possibly leading to better collaboration among them in the future workplace. Several organizations have advocated, developed, and updated guidelines for IPE.

Objective

This study was aimed at assessing the medical, dental, and pharmacy students' readiness toward interprofessional education (IPE), and to identify the association between readiness and the demographic profile of students in a university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Methods

A cross-sectional questionnaire-based exploratory study involving 215 medical, dental, and pharmacy students at Ajman University, UAE, using convenience sampling. The survey questionnaire (Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale, RIPLS) had a total of 19 statements. The first 9 items were related to "teamwork and collaboration", items 10-16 were related to "professional identity", and the remaining three (items 17-19) were related to "roles and responsibilities". The individual statements' median (IQR) scores were calculated and the total scores were compared with the demographic characteristics of the respondents with suitable non-parametric tests at alpha=0.05.

Results

Altogether, 215 undergraduate students (medical (n= 35)), pharmacy (n=105), and dental (n=75) responded to the survey. The median (IQR) score for the 19 individual statements was '5 (4-5)' for 12 of the statements. The total scores and domain-specific scores (teamwork and collaboration, professional identity, and roles and responsibilities) according to respondents' demography showed significant differences only in the case of the educational stream with professional identity score (p=<0.001), and the total RIPLS score (p=0.024). Further, post hoc pairwise comparison showed a significant difference between medicine-pharmacy (p<0.001), and dentistry-medicine (p=0.009), for professional identity, and medicine-pharmacy (p=0.020) for the total RIPLS score.

Conclusion

A high readiness score among students offers the possibility of conducting IPE modules. A favorable attitude can be considered by curriculum planners while initiating IPE sessions.