Theme 3: Crossing Interprofessional, Intercultural, and Interpersonal
Boundaries in Knowledge Building
Shared Resources: Collaboration and New Technologies
Educational
outcomes of the Pain Week Interprofessional Undergraduate E-Learning initiative
Leila Lax, Division of Biomedical Communication, University of Toronto, ON, Canada
Leila Lax, Division of Biomedical Communication, University of Toronto, ON, Canada
Aim: This undergraduate health sciences initiative evaluated educational outcomes of interprofessional knowledge building (KB) (Scardamalia,2002) in the context of the study of pain. The UTCSP-IFEC developed a 20 hour curriculum for 540 students in the Faculties/Departments of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy and Physical Therapy (03.18-22.02). Participation in the E-Learning research component was voluntary.
Methods: A multimedia clinical case was developed to unfold via text and video vignettes, integrating Standardized Patients and a real patient. KB emergent ideas, “Discussion Issues” and “Ideas at the Centre” stimulated collaborative online discourse. Seventy participants were randomly divided and stratified by discipline into two E-Learning environments, WebCT (n=30) and Web Knowledge Forum (KF) (n=40). A mixed methods design experiment methodology was used (Creswell,1994; Brown, 1993; Bereiter, 2002).
Results: Students highly rated their E-Learning experience (89% KF & 83% WebCT ex/vg/g); however ratings across disciplines varied (Medicine highest). 85% perceived enhanced educational outcomes of new knowledge, multi-perspectives (91%) and deeper understanding of interprofessional roles (92%). Read/write ratios (10:1) were high. Interprofessional knowledge sharing, shallow co-constructive KB, was defined. Identification of student pain conceptions/misconceptions demonstrated novel use of E-Learning for determining outcomes. Pre-post-tests indicated no significant difference from face-to-face change in pain belief outcomes.
Conclusions: An E-Learning model was developed to support key educational outcomes of interprofessional, evidence-based KB for shared understanding.
POSTER DETAILS:
Universities structured by discipline, separated by buildings, are not set up to advance cognitive work in shared problem spaces to support symmetric interprofessional knowledge building. Hospitals current call to arms for health professional education is “learn together, to work together”. Going beyond best practice in this scenario is not defined by enabling teamwork, but by advancing ideas interprofessional practice for better patient outcomes.