Delivering Interprofessional Education to Online Dietetics Students

Interprofessional education (IPE) is an accreditation requirement and an important component of training for future registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs). The dietetics program at the University of Arizona (UA) prepares students to become RDNs and has an online program to increase access to dietetics training. The existing face-to-face program incorporated in-person IPE into the curriculum. However, there was limited IPE available to dietetics students in the online program due to logistical and resource issues. To address this problem of practice, an online IPE module was developed providing dietetics students the opportunity to build collaborative skills with students in other UA healthcare training programs. A mixed methods action research study was designed to answer two research questions: (1) How and to what extent did participation an online IPE module impact online dietetics students’ interprofessional attitudes? and (2) After participating in an online IPE module, in what ways did online dietetics students change their thinking regarding the roles of healthcare professionals? Participants were dietetics students enrolled in an upper-division online dietetics course. Data gathered included a retrospective pre-post survey, online team discussion responses, reflection journal entries, personal constructs related to health professional roles, and focus group interviews. Results suggested that the online IPE intervention had a positive impact on dietetics students’ attitudes of interprofessional practice and enhanced their understanding of the roles of members of the interprofessional team. Both the quantitative and qualitative results indicated that after completing the intervention, participants’ were more attuned to the importance of interprofessional practice and the need to collaborate to provide quality patient care. There was also evidence that participants’ thinking regarding different healthcare professionals’ roles were more defined. The opportunity for participants to work on a final project as part of an interprofessional team likely contributed to the positive shared learning experiences and overall growth in interprofessional collaboration. In relation to practice, results indicate IPE should be included throughout dietetics training, and embrace students from a variety of public health disciplines. Future research should focus on exploring new approaches to engaging students in the online environment and evaluating the impact of IPE on students’ future practice.