Date Presented 03/27/20
Graduate students from diverse disciplines participated in an online course to prepare professionals to serve individuals with ASD. Three years of data revealed measurable gains in interprofessional competencies, including values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, communication, and teamwork. ASD knowledge achievements were assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. The presenters are committed to overcoming interprofessional education barriers and to advancing interprofessional, team-based best practice.
Primary Author and Speaker: Donna Wooster
Contributing Authors: Brenda Beverly
PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of this interprofessional course to improve graduate student knowledge and preparation to serve individuals with autism across the lifespan. All students received some basic knowledge of ASD in their individual disciplines, but had not participated in an IPE course to consider how to better provide client-centered, evidence-based care during life role transitions. Cases were presented to foster discussion regarding changing client needs, various environments such as aging out of school, a variety of work situations, a variety of potential living situations, family planning needs, and how the team approach could improve and prioritize the interventions required at various times.
DESIGN: A one credit course was designed, primarily online for a variety of allied health graduate students (OT, PT, ST, special education, and psychology). Students elected to take this course in summer semester in addition to other required courses. Students had to have good GPAS and permission from department chairs to be considered. Students also had to agree to attend a one day conference, as part of the course, with community professionals attending for continuing education.
METHODS: The course was held three times over three years with different cohorts of students. A total of 27 students participated: Occupational Therapy (n=9), Physical Therapy (n=10), Speech-Language Pathology (n=6), psychology (n=1), and special education (n=1). Students completed pre and post testing using the Knowledge of Autism Test, the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS), and the IPEC Competency Survey.
RESULTS: A repeated measures ANOVA revealed pre to post IPE skills were significantly increased for all four domains as measured by the IPEC Competency Survey Instrument (Dow et al., 2014) as follows (pre Ms[SDs] to post Ms[SDs], p value): Values and Ethics (4.34[.65] to 4.52[.51], p = .05); Roles and Responsibilities (4.01[.52] to 4.44[.44], p ≤ .00); Communication (4.00[.54] to 4.34[.43], p ≤ .00); Teams and Teamwork 3.70[.61] to 4.29[.45], p ≤ .00). Results from the quantitative portion of the Knowledge of Autism survey (Williams et all, 2011) also revealed statistically significant increases based on a paired sample t test, 2.88[.58] to 3.48[.40], p ≤ .00. Both measures are 1 to 5 item Likert scales, with 1= Strongly disagree and 5= strongly agree. A mixed model ANOVA with the within-subjects factor of pre- to post-testing for these 5 measures (4 on the IPEC plus the 1 total for Knowledge of Autism) and between- subjects factor of year (Year 1 v 2 v 3) revealed statistically significant differences for the main effects of pre- to post-test measure (F= 7.26, p = .001, partial eta squared = .708) and year (F = 4.72, p ≤ .00, partial eta squared = .596).
CONCLUSION: Interprofessional competencies were increased following an online IPE graduate course on the topic of ASD with students from various disciplines. Instructors role modeled interprofessional collaboration and co-taught the course. Content covers knowledge and skills across disciplines. More importantly, instructional methods are designed specifically to address IPE and cases selected to be representative of life span and major role transitions.
IMPACT: This research contributes to the knowledge regarding preparing students to address needs of clients, across the life span with developmental disabilities. OT programs can consider addressing these needs via interprofessional course work and embedded selected cases to illustrate life transitions and decisions and prepare the interprofessional teams to effectively address client-centered and evidence-based interventions.
References
Beverly, B.L., & Wooster, D.A. (2018). An interprofessional education initiative for allied health students preparing to serve individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Allied Health, 47(2), 90-95.
Dow, A.W., DiazGranados, D., Mazmanian, P. E., & Retchin, S. M. (2014). An exploratory study of an assessment tool derived from the competencies of the interprofessional Care, 28(4), 299-304. DOI: 10.3109/13561820.2014.891573
Luecht, R. M., Madsen, M. K., Tau gher, M.P., Peterson, B. J. (1990). Assessing professional perceptionsK design and validation of an interdisciplinary education perception scale. Journal of Allied Health,19(2), 181-191.
Williams, K. L., Shroeder, J. L., Carvalho, C. & Cervantes, A. (2011). School professionals knowledge of autism: a pilot survey. The School Psychologist, 65(2), 7-14.
