This article originally appeared as part of a dietetic internship “Noteworthy Practice” article on the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) website.  Missouri State’s Dietetic Internship provides opportunities for our students to focus on interprofessional education and learn more about other healthcare disciplines and working together.

 

Noteworthy Practice Category: Interprofessional Education

Missouri State University Dietetic Internship
Hillary Roberts, MS, RDN, LD

 

Interprofessional education within the College of Health and Human Services at Missouri State University is thriving. Fall of 2017, students from five programs, Dietetic Internship, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physician Assistant Services and Psychology, are involved in a 90 minute IPE simulation. Students complete pre-simulation work which includes reviewing the patient’s physical assessment, physician orders and lab sheet. In addition, students listen to an audio recording introducing them to IPE.

The dietetic interns have 10 minutes with the “patient” who has diabetes. Interns focus is improving motivational interviewing skills while assessing the patient’s current diabetes knowledge, importance level of change and eliciting patient-centered goal setting. After this 10 minute consult the intern’s provide a hand-off report of their findings to the other health professional students. After all students have been if the simulation lab, the IPE coordinator leads a debrief session. The dietetic interns then compose a written reflection of their experience.

Interns’ reflections have been positive, highlighting the IPE simulation as an effective learning method. An intern stated in her reflection, “multiple people commented on not knowing what a dietitian did before the simulation and now they understand the importance of our field. From the simulation, we all have more respect for each discipline and what is entailed in the discipline. I loved this experience and I am so happy I was able to be a part of it!”

Each intern has noted that their interprofessional communication and teamwork improved from the simulation experience. MSU’s dietetic internship will continue involvement in IPE simulation and plans to expand on other IPE learning methods spring of 2018!

 

For a link to the original source of this article, The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics ACEND Website, click here.