Impact of Collaborative Inpatient Pairing Between Pharmacy Students and Family Medicine Residents on Perceptions of Interprofessional Care

Abstract

Introduction: Interprofessional education (IPE) and collaborative practice increasingly inform accreditation standards for pharmacy and medical education, grounded in evidence of benefits to patients and learners. Optimizing models that meaningfully provide this type of practice remains a challenge. This study examines the impact of inpatient collaboration between pharmacy students and family medicine residents on perceptions of interprofessional care. Methods: Pharmacy students and family medicine residents were invited to participate in an IPE experience during their medicine rotation, in which student-resident pairs worked collaboratively on patient care for a block rotation. We used a Student Perceptions of Physician-Pharmacist Interprofessional Clinical Education Instrument (SPICE-2) survey instrument and included an opportunity for open comments by participants. We performed statistical analysis using paired t tests.  Results: We observed statistically significant changes (P