Pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and physician assistant professional students’ perspectives on interprofessional roles and responsibilities

ABSTRACT

Understanding roles and responsibilities within the interprofessional practice is a key competency of interprofessional education (IPE). Students in health professions programs can have limited understanding and perceptions of health professions, including their own and other professions. The purpose of this study was to understand students’ perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of other health-care professionals. Students enrolled in occupational therapy, pharmacy, physical therapy, and physician assistant programs at a university participated in a three-hour IPE workshop. Throughout this workshop, they worked in small interprofessional teams to identify unique and shared roles and responsibilities of health professions. Students used a “dream catcher” graphic organizer to compare and contrast these roles and responsibilities. Researchers used thematic analysis of completed graphic organizers to identify themes in students’ perceptions. Students identified many shared and unique characteristics about their professions’ values and expertise, patient care process, practice settings, patient populations, education, and regulations. While students correctly identified many aspects of their professions, there were some inaccuracies that were addressed by small group faculty facilitators.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional education
• roles
• thematic analysis
• qualitative descriptive research
• role clarity