Student experiences with an interprofessional hope-based healthy aging research project

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional education (IPE) and research enhances learning, team-based communication, and cross-disciplinary collaborations, which can result in higher quality care for older adults. Despite the importance of IPE, it remains underutilized in higher education, demonstrating the need for extracurricular IPE opportunities. This study describes an interprofessional research project that brought together faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students from several health and social science disciplines to design and deliver a 15-week healthy aging program for older adults living in the urban Circumpolar North. Five faculty and one graduate research assistant led the project while eight students team-taught weekly, 1-hour sessions in the community focusing on healthy lifestyles within a framework of Persuasive Hope Theory. This paper describes the project, the student training procedures, and reports the results of the student satisfaction survey regarding their involvement with the research. Using a student self-assessment survey, students report gains in thinking like a scientist, increased confidence conducting research tasks, benefits from teamwork, and greater consideration of the needs of older adults in their field of study. Despite a small sample size, this study also suggests that students may be more likely to consider a career working with older adults if given hands-on experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional education
• geriatrics
• gerontology
• experiential learning
• team-based learning
• undergraduate research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02701960.2024.2362766.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under grant number [R15AG072369] and an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences from the National Institutes of Health under grant number [P20GM103395]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.