Students' Comprehension of the Roles of Allied Health Professionals
Authors: Herriott Hannah , McNulty Margaret 
Published: June 2021

Introduction

Interprofessional education (IPE) is crucial for students in healthcare professional programs as they learn the roles and responsibilities of different professions within the healthcare system. However, most IPE studies focus on professional identity; very few focus on whether students are learning the professional roles of their own profession and colleagues'. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate whether first‐year allied health students could adequately identify the roles of occupational therapists (OT), physical therapists (PT), and physician assistants (PA) following an interprofessional anatomy course.

Methods

An IRB‐approved mixed methods study was conducted in a gross anatomy course for first semester allied health students at Indiana University in PA, PT, and OT programs. Students were asked to participate in a pre‐/post‐test survey which asked them to identify to which professional a patient in different scenarios should be referred as a measure of students' understanding of PA, PT, and OT roles in patient care. The percent of incorrect responses for each student cohort were evaluated using Wilcoxon Signed Rank and Kruskal‐Wallis tests. The survey also asked students to briefly summarize the roles of the three professions. These responses were qualitatively evaluated using thematic analysis. In a response to quantitative findings (outlined below), the definitions of the OTs' roles provided by the students were further compared to the definition provided by the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA).

Results

Quantitative results indicated that students had a better understanding of their own profession's role compared to the roles of the other two professions. More students struggled with identifying the roles of OT (p=0.016) than the roles of PA or PT. Lastly, participation in the interprofessional anatomy course did not significantly affect the students' ability to correctly identify to which health professional the patient should be referred (p=0.729). Qualitative results revealed a vast majority of the OT students' definitions correlated with three major themes from the AOTA's definition: helping with activities of daily living, tasks based on patient's goals, and coping with life changes after injury. PA and PT students' answers had more variation and fewer specific phrases found within the AOTA definition, however most responses mentioned helping patients with activities of daily living and coping after permanent injuries. Both PA and PT students had multiple responses identifying treating hand or upper limb deficits as an important role of OTs, although the AOTA and most OT students did not reference this theme.

Conclusions

Overall, PA and PT students were found to be less familiar with the roles that OTs play within the healthcare system. Since the OT field recently began transitioning towards a doctoral‐level single point of entry profession in 2014, it is not surprising that the students had less familiarity with the roles of OTs. Ongoing analyses will include thematic analyses of the definitions of PTs and PAs, and further investigation of role formation and identification within first year allied health students.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.