Promoting Interprofessional Role Identity through Virtual Simulations

The 2003 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Health Professionals Education report has challenged faculties of nursing and other health professions to strategically and mindfully alter learning experiences to work collaboratively and strategically to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interprofessional team, while emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches and informatics.  (IOM, 2003). The IOM’s The Future of Nursing:  Leading Change, Advancing Health, notes, “Schools of nursing, in collaboration with other health professional schools, should design and implement early and continuous interprofessional collaboration through joint classroom and clinical training opportunities.” (IOM, 2011).  The purpose of the study was to investigate the use of virtual simulations to advance student knowledge of roles and responsibilities of professionals across healthcare disciplines. A web-based case study was created using an online application known as DecisionSimulation. The virtual simulation took place within a virtual Interdisciplinary Clinic created in the virtual world known as SecondLife.  The interdisciplinary team consisted of students enrolled in the masters nurse practitioner program, masters program in speech-language pathology, masters program in occupational therapy, physician assistant program and their faculty. Synchronously interprofessional students’ avatars conducted a grand round session in a manner consistent with clinical practice.  A case manager led the group of participants in a discussion with the goal of establishing a plan of care reflecting interdisciplinary input and collaboration. The debriefing experience and results from a pre and post experience survey, Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS), will be discussed as well as opportunities and challenges experienced with interprofessional education and SecondLife technology.