Enhancing Medical and Advanced Practice Nursing Students' Competency in Dementia Care through Inter-Professional Collaboration

The objectives of this program were to enhance medical student (MS) and family nurse practitioner (FNPS) students’ basic competency in the diagnosis and treatment of dementias and to use a team approach in clinical education that would enhance students’ understanding of the roles each plays in the delivery of care, thereby rendering them more likely to perform effectively and collaboratively as members of interdisciplinary health care teams.

To achieve these objectives a training program for FNP and MS was designed that included:

• A presentation on the clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment of dementias and their impact on the patients, families and the health care system.
• Clinical experiences, pairing one FNPS and one MS who observed history and physical, neuropsychological testing and diagnostic impression conference, 2) participated in family support group meetings, 3) participated in day center activities and 4) observed follow-up with patient’s Primary Care Provider.

One hundred twenty (74 MS, 45 FNPS) completed the project.  The sample was ethnically and racially diverse with 19% African American, 11% Hispanic and 70% white.  FNP students were 98% female, with 57% of the MS being male.  The average age of the FNPS was 36 compared with 25 for the MS.

Qualitative findings of this study demonstrated that attitudes concerning collaboration and interdisciplinary teamwork were significantly different between the FNP and MS groups at baseline (p=.0001).  While the significant difference remained between the FNP and MS groups at the end of the program (p = .0015) each group improved in their attitudes toward interdisciplinary teams and collaboration (FNPS p = .003/ MDS = p.001).

• Qualitative Comments included: The physician and NP worked very well as a cohesive team. I wish it was the same in the hospitals and MDs offices because the care of the client would be much better.
• This is useful for future practice because it allowed me to see how much we are different and how much we each thought of different things or approaches.