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. 2023 Nov 29:80:11680.
doi: 10.3389/bjbs.2023.11680. eCollection 2023.

A Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Case Study to Promote Interprofessional Learning (IPL) Between Audiology and Biomedical Science Students in Higher Education

Amreen Bashir  1 , Ross Pallett  1 , Karan Singh Rana  1 , Saira Hussain  2
Affiliations

A Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Case Study to Promote Interprofessional Learning (IPL) Between Audiology and Biomedical Science Students in Higher Education

Amreen Bashir et al. Br J Biomed Sci. .

Abstract

Modern and effective patient care requires specialist healthcare professionals working together. Interprofessional learning (IPL) seeks to provide opportunities for different healthcare disciplines to learn with, from and about each other. This study focused on the delivery and evaluation of a cytomegalovirus (CMV) case study workshop to facilitate IPL between two Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) regulated courses: Biomedical Science and Audiology. The 2 h online workshop consisted of 1) defining the roles, responsibilities and skills of the two healthcare professions, 2) the structure of the Biomedical Science and Audiology departments, 3) routes to HCPC registration, 4) core curriculum of both degree programmes and 5) interpreting interdisciplinary data related to a CMV patient case. The workshop was interactive, with the virtual learning environment promoting peer discussions and the use of online polling. Student responses were collected through an online questionnaire. A total of 108 respondents completed a post-event survey and Mann-Whitney U tests revealed there were no significant differences in the responses between the two student cohorts in response to each of the survey statements (p > 0.05). A total of 82.4% of students agreed that they need to know the role of other healthcare professionals for their future practice, whilst 84.2% agreed that the CMV case study was a good format to facilitate effective IPL. A total of 93.5% of respondents recognised the importance of both professions in diagnosing a patient with CMV. Thematic analysis identified four common themes, including appreciation of shared roles, recognition of similarities in registration pathways, working together to provide holistic patient care and the role of clinicians in the patient journey. This novel collaboration between Biomedical Science and Audiology facilitated effective IPL whilst meeting the interprofessional education HCPC requirements. Collaborative working is an essential component of delivering effective patient care and allied healthcare degrees need to provide opportunities within their curriculum to foster this. We hope this study encourages other higher education institutes to expand and develop their current IPL activities to include a broader spectrum of healthcare courses.

Keywords: audiology; biomedical science; higher education; interprofessional learning; patient care.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Steps involved in the design, delivery, and evaluation of the IPL workshop.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Details of the three IPL activities and the associated core transferable skills students developed.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Student survey self-reported responses to the online IPL workshop (n = 108). A five-point Likert scale was used to answer each statement, with 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree ± the standard deviation (SD). A Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine statistical significance (*p < 0.05) between the two student cohorts.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
A visual depiction of the four primary themes derived from the thematic analysis conducted on the open-text responses obtained from Biomedical Science and Audiology students. The themes encompass what students felt they learnt and taught other students through the IPL workshop. Several students open-text response contained more than one theme.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
The four common themes identified through analysis of descriptive words to evaluate the workshop.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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