Objective. To prepare first-year and second-year pharmacy and medical students to build effective collaborative health care teams by participating in an interprofessional experiential 6-semester course series.Design. An interprofessional experiential course series was designed using a variety of teaching methods to achieve both interprofessional and experiential learning outcomes. A standardized objective behavioral assessment was developed to measure team performance of interprofessional communication and teamwork. In addition, student perceptions were measured using a validated instrument. Assessment. A majority of teams demonstrated appropriate competence with respect to interprofessional communication and teamwork. Additionally, a majority of students expressed positive perceptions of interprofessional collaboration with respect to teamwork, roles and responsibilities, and patient outcomes.Conclusion. An interprofessional experiential course series can be successfully implemented to achieve both interprofessional and experiential learning outcomes. Highly collaborative teams and positive student perceptions provide evidence of achievement of interprofessional education learning outcomes.Keywords: interprofessional education, behaviors, perceptions, SPICE, assessment INTRODUCTIONExperiential education is a methodology involving the incorporation of learners into direct practice experiences and guided reflective observations with the goal of increasing student knowledge and professional abilities such as skills, attitudes, and behaviors. 1 Interprofessional education (IPE) is a pedagogical approach that engages students of various health professions, dedicated to the introduction, reinforcement, and mastery of core competencies for provision of patient care in a collaborative team environment. 2 Both experiential education and IPE are integral components of the doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum supported by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Education (CAPE). 3 Additionally, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) outlines these required standards and specifically states that all students should competently "participate in experiential educational activities with prescribers/student prescribers and other student/professional health care team members, including face-to-face interactions that are designed to advance interprofessional team effectiveness." 4 Several instructional design formats for the delivery of IPE are reported in the literature. A review conducted by Abu-Rish and colleagues reviewed 83 eligible studies and found small group discussion and problem-based learning to be the most commonly used strategies, followed by experiential-based clinical teaching, simulation-based learning, and various other educational interventions. 5 Because of the variety of instructional design formats employed and the varying frequency of these activities throughout the curriculum (ie, one-time activities vs multiple activities throughout the ...

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Objective. To address the public health concern of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission, various intrapersonal and organizational factors were identified to explore opportunities for pharmacists as part of a HIV/HCV prevention strategy. The awareness and comfort of pharmacists practicing in independent pharmacies and student pharmacists on providing HIV and HCV point-of-care (POC) tests in an urban setting were investigated. Method. Surveys were anonymously completed by pharmacists practicing in independent pharmacies within a 2-mile radius of our institution and student pharmacists attending our institution. Surveys were administered over a period of 10 weeks. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results. A total of 119 pharmacy students and 23 practicing licensed pharmacists completed the survey. Only 21.7% of pharmacists were aware that HIV and HCV screenings are available as POC tests. Pharmacists were more likely to feel comfortable administering other POC tests and not HIV or HCV POC tests. Student pharmacists felt more comfortable than pharmacists in administering HIV and HCV POC tests and had a higher perceived level of comfort of their ability to administer these tests as licensed pharmacists. Conclusions. In this urban setting, awareness and comfort in pharmacist-provided HIV and HCV POC testing is low, however, with proper training and education, pharmacists in these community pharmacy practice settings can expand HIV and HCV screening opportunities for the community.

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Background: Evaluating student perceptions of interprofessional education (IPE) is important to meet accreditation