An interprofessional approach to undergraduate critical care education

Abstract

Published research suggests that the best outcomes in critical care clinical practice require an interprofessional (IP) collaborative approach to patient care. The Institute of Medicine has called for increased IP education. This article describes the development of an elective undergraduate IP critical care course. The course was developed to educate nursing and respiratory care students on the importance of IP practice, current evidence, and essentials of critical care. Several challenges were met in the development and implementation of the course. Various IP teaching strategies were used, including simulation, clinical observations, and student patient case presentations. An IP course provides a unique learning environment in which fundamental principles of critical care clinical practice and IP practice can be learned in an IP educational environment. There is a critical need to increase IP education and to conduct research related to IP education and its outcomes in preprofessional educational programs.