Exploring first-year pharmacy and medical students’ experiences during a longitudinal interprofessional education program

Abstract Background Health profession schools have been tasked with implementation of interprofessional education (IPE) within their programs to better prepare students to build effective collaborative health care teams. In 2011, the IPE core competencies were introduced. There is a need to understand whether IPE experiences help students achieve these core competencies. The goal of our research was to explore student-reported experiences relating to IPE core competencies using a qualitative approach. Methods Pharmacy and medical students enrolled in combined longitudinal IPE courses during their first professional year were invited to participate in focus groups. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and qualitatively analyzed to produce thematic content. Results Overall, 18 students participated in three separate focus groups (six students per group). Emergent themes from focus group discussions relating to IPE core competencies included patient care concerns, shared feelings, disconnect between expectations and experiences, perceived role of pharmacists, new learning of pharmacist roles, strategies for effective communication, teamwork, and shared goals. Additional emergent themes were identified that differed and were similar between pharmacy and medical students. Conclusions These emergent themes provide evidence that students are at the preliminary stages of demonstrating IPE core competencies. Our study supports the introduction of IPE early in health profession curricula, the adoption of longitudinal course delivery, and the implementation of faculty development to promote achievement of IPE core competencies in a developmentally appropriate manner.