Identifying Misconceptions about the Roles of Allied Health Professions in Patient Care
Authors: Herriott Hannah L. , McNulty Margaret A. 
Published: April 2020

Introduction

This study expands upon our previous work which evaluated the impact of an interprofessional anatomy course on the rate of role misidentification for occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), and physician assistant (PA) students. In the present study, a team‐based learning (TBL) intervention involving medical (MD) students was implemented. Our objectives were to 1) assess the effectiveness of these TBL sessions on role comprehension and 2) to identify misunderstandings about OT, PT, or PA roles among students.

Methods

Four team‐based learning (TBL) sessions, facilitated by 4th year MD students, were integrated into an anatomy course for PA, PT, and OT students with a primary purpose to review anatomical content through clinical cases. During each TBL session, students were given three cases to work through, including identifying which allied health profession(s) would be most appropriate to lead the patient’s care. Students in all four cohorts were asked to participate in an IRB‐approved
pre‐/post‐intervention survey asking them to: 1) identify to which profession the patient in a given scenario should be referred and 2) briefly summarize the roles of these allied health professions. Quantitative data were evaluated using Kruskal‐Wallis and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests while qualitative data were evaluated using thematic analysis.

Results

We saw the rate of improvement on role identification from paired pre‐ to post‐surveys triple the rate of improvement seen in our previous study without the TBL intervention. Previously, students had the most difficulty identifying OT roles, which is consistent with the literature. After implementing the TBL sessions, current data combined from all students demonstrated that they correctly identified OTs’ roles at a significantly higher rate compared to pre‐surveys (
p=0.012). Despite this improvement, several discrepancies about OT and PA roles remained prevalent in post‐survey free responses. Students in non‐OT programs perpetuated a common misconception that OTs’ scope of practice is predominantly limited to fine motor skills.
MD students had a better understanding of the high level of autonomy and positive relationship between a PA and a physician, whereas OT and PT students often viewed the PA as being dependent on and inferior to the physician.

Conclusions

We have developed an intervention that positively influenced interprofessional comprehension of allied healthcare professions’ roles and illuminated misconceptions that still persist. Quantitative results support the conclusion that the TBL‐intervention improved students’ ability to identify roles, particularly OTs’. While thematic analysis revealed fewer misconceptions regarding professional roles compared to previous study results from students who did not benefit from the TBL intervention, several misconceptions remained prevalent. Implementing interventions focused on improving comprehension of professional roles, such as the one outlined herein, are important to reduce these pervasive misconceptions among the healthcare
field.

Support or Funding Information

This study is funded by an International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Educational Scholarship Grant.