Abstract
OT and physical therapy students visited Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) centers to educate families on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Milestone Tracker app. A pretest-posttest design using an adapted version of the Cultural Competence Self-Assessment Checklist (N = 40) was utilized. The results indicated that while students perceived the experience as a positive one that increased their knowledge of WIC, the experience did not significantly alter self-perceptions of their cultural competence.
Primary Author and Speaker: Kate Barlow
Interprofessional education (IPE) and cultural competence are both required for occupational and physical therapy students for program accreditation. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) released a position paper stating that, ‘occupational therapy curricula should include IPE in which students have the opportunities to learn and apply the knowledge and skills necessary for interprofessional collaborative practice’ (2015, p. 1). The challenge is now incorporating IPE into the occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) educational programs that have typically been educating students in isolation (Foster & Pullen, 2016). Cultural competence is also a shared learning objective for both ACOTE and CAPTE. Assessing the impact of the cultural and interprofessional experiences provided is critical to the development of a successful pediatric curriculum. Objectively evaluating outcomes also facilitates making the necessary changes to improve student performance. Occupational therapy and physical therapy students visited local Women, Infant and Children (WIC) centers to educate families in the waiting rooms on the CDC’s Milestone Tracker app, which helps to monitor developmental milestones for early identification of delays. This activity reinforced the pediatric curriculum by having students both apply and teach the material covered in class. Visiting the WIC centers also provided an opportunity for the students to experience both interacting with a lower economic population and a predominantly Spanish speaking population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the community experience’s efficacy in improving cultural competence. The study was a quasi-experimental, pre-test, post-test design, using an adapted version of the Cultural Competence Self-Assessment Checklist. Permission to use the adapted survey was granted by the Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society. A post survey on the experience was also provided. The community experience was volunteer, as well as participation in the study. A total of 40 pre and post surveys were completed, along with the Likert scale feedback survey on the experience; both were anonymous. The Cultural Competence Self-Assessment adapted checklist data was entered into SPSS for analysis. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was calculated and no statistical significance was found. On the course survey evaluating the WIC experience using a 1-5 Likert scale (5 = strongly agree), students responded favorably to all questions. 85% of students responded that the WIC experience was impactful in increasing understanding of diverse populations (M = 4.3) and 87.5% of students responded that the WIC experience was a positive multicultural experience (M = 4.5). 92.5% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the course increased knowledge of diverse populations’ access to health (M = 4.5) and 100% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the community experience increased their knowledge of the role WIC plays in lower income families (M = 4.6). The results indicate that while students perceived the community experience as a positive one that increased their knowledge of the role WIC plays in healthcare for low income families, the experience did not significantly alter their perceptions of their cultural competence. Comments from the open-ended questions on the feedback forms indicated that the interaction with parents improved their confidence in their communication skills and knowledge of developmental milestones. In the future, it may be beneficial to have students take public transportation to and from the site to increase exposure to the obstacles faced by many. Limitations of the study include the lack of validation of the assessment tool and a small sample size.
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2015). Importance of interprofessional education in occupational therapy curricula. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 69(Suppl. 3), 691341020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2015.696S02
Foster, J. & Pullen, S. (2016). International service learning in the Dominican Republic: An asynchronous pilot in interprofessional education. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 30(2), 257-258. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/135612820.2015.1084276