Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Professional Education: Healthy Choices for Me

Cynthia Lau, PhD, OTR/L, BCP, Devina Robinson, OTS, Michelle Ashley, OTS, Elisa Dick, OTS, Kristina Harvey, OTS, Chrys Margaux, OTS, Anthea Mourselas, OTS, and Victoria Pringels, OTS Touro University Nevada, School of Occupational Therapy, Henderson, NV
Conclusions The children in the program receive a wellintegrated health promotion program from multiple disciplines. The program led to increased appreciation of each others disciplines for all the involved graduate students. Occupational therapy students reported that they educated the other health care students regarding the scope of practice for occupational therapy. When formal interprofessional education is limited, a collaborative interdisciplinary service learning project can serve as a vehicle for health discipline students to learn from each other and foster the lines of communication that can stretch into professional practice.

Background Service learning is a successful method of teaching the interactive and pragmatic clinical reasoning skills occupational therapy students need to become effective practitioners (Bazyk et al. ,2010), and collaboration with other health professionals is a vital part of professional development (Flinn et al., 2009). Positive attitude changes are evident when health professionals are trained together in interprofessional education and this methodology can impact the effectiveness of patient care (Jacobsen & Lindqvist, 2009). However, barriers exist to implementing interprofessional education in higher education institutions (Conrad et al., 2012). Healthy Choices for Me Healthy Choices for Me (Lau et al., 2013) utilized both service learning and interdisciplinary collaboration as an effective health promotion program directed towards children at risk. The goals of the program were to increase self-efficacy of the children to choose healthier foods and active over sedentary activities. The program based at Touro University Nevada is used to promote the therapeutic use of self, organizational, and teaming skills that occupational therapy students need to cultivate before fieldwork placement. Interdisciplinary Collaboration In addition to refining clinical skills, occupational therapy students communicate and work with students from other health disciplines such as osteopathic medicine and physical therapy to address the primary goals of health promotion and obesity prevention. The occupational therapy students lead the entire program and focus on developing the childrens self-efficacy pertaining to health choices they make within their routines and environments.

The occupational therapy students also coordinate the participation of other disciplines. The physical therapy students direct their efforts to teaching about the value and ways to exercise daily. The osteopathic medical students run the Mini Med School in which the students learn about the organs and systems of the body and how they function. The children in the program receive a wellintegrated health promotion program.

This work was supported by a TOURO University Nevada Research Grant Award.