Turf, team, and town: A geriatric interprofessional education program

Article type: Research Article

Authors: MacRae, Nancy

Affiliations: Occupational Therapy Department, University of New England, Portland, ME, USA. Tel.: +1 207 221 4106; Fax: +1 207 523 1920; E-mail: nmacrae@une.edu

Abstract: Objective and participants: This program provides an interprofessional course to students, allowing them to learn together with each other and their elder teachers. Goals: include refining their professional parameters (turf), learning how to successfully collaborate with other professionals (team), and determining how to effectively design intervention plans for elders within their own communities (town). Various methods of evaluation, such as journals, participation in rounds, and OSCEs, used to assess students' status are described. Results: Both students and faculty gained clearer perceptions of other professions through their work with each other and the ability to more effectively communicate with other profession. Both also learned, through their relationships with their elder teachers, more about how their specific professions' contributions can affect elders and how elders perceive and contribute to their own communities. Conclusions: This program has been a successful venture. The challenge is now to devise a way to provide similar experiences to a larger group of students.

Keywords: Elder, team, dental externs, occupational therapy, physician assistant, physical therapy

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-2012-1296

Journal: Work, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 285-292, 2012