Utilization of Skills Assessment Tools to Measure the Impact of an Interprofessional Simulation-Based Emergency Medicine Course in Prelicensed Pharmacy and Physician Assistant Learners

Simulation-based interprofessional experiences (SIM-IPE) are beneficial in training health professional students for real-world clinical scenarios. However, there are limited studies utilizing objective assessments to evaluate longitudinal interprofessional simulations with pharmacy and physician assistant (PA) students.

This was a prospective, observational study evaluating the impact of a 7-week SIM-IPE emergency medicine (EM) course on second-year pharmacy and first-year PA students’ knowledge and skills of advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) and perceptions of resuscitation team dynamics. Each week, students completed readings and an individual readiness assessment test asynchronously before each simulation. The students came in-person to work together in interprofessional teams to assess and treat simulated patients in various EM case scenarios once a week. Following simulations, individual student teams debriefed in a student-driven discussion on the team’s dynamics, emotions, and inter-/intra-professional communication and actions, and then reconvened with the other groups for a large group discussion on the clinical pearls of the case co-facilitated by pharmacy and PA faculty. Student perceptions about leadership, teamwork, and task management were evaluated each week using the validated Team Emergency Assessment Measure™ tool, and their clinical skills were evaluated using a faculty-developed rubric. Students completed an ACLS knowledge exam before and after the course. Descriptive statistics and mixed effects linear regression models were used to analyze the data.

130 pharmacy and PA students completed the SIM-IPE EM course between 2021 and 2022. There was a significant increase between baseline and post-course knowledge exam scores (54% vs 86%, p<0.0001). Student teams demonstrated a significant increase in patient interview skills (38.6 vs 70.8, p<0.0002), interprofessional communication (48.1 vs 80.6, p<0.001), and self-rated team leadership (2.45 vs 3.40, p<0.001), teamwork (2.82 vs 3.58, p<0.001), task management (2.76 vs 3.54, p <0.001), and overall global rating scores (6.49 vs 8.61, p<0.001) from the first to the last simulation.

This study demonstrates the positive impact of a 7-week SIM-IPE EM course on interprofessional and ACLS and EM knowledge and skills.