Teaching Interprofessional Practice Skills by Saving Humanity : An Innovative IPE Curricular Method Using a Cooperative Strategy Board Game

Statement of Issue Increasingly, team-based interprofessional (IP) collaboration is the central model of practice for health disciplines (Khalili, Orchard, Laschinger, & Farah, 2013). Yet traditional education models can foster a uniprofessional identity that leads to “turf protection” and subsequent resistance to IP collaboration (Bronstein, 2003, p. 448). Interprofessional education (IPE) models, however, are designed to promote team competency and an IP identity (Lindgard, 2013). IPE activities often focus on building student competency in four core areas: efficient and effective teamwork, effective communication, understanding of professional roles, and shared values (Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), 2016). Innovative IPE activities provide students with real-time decision-making and debriefing opportunities are needed (Lindgard, 2013). Background One such innovative IPE activity is utilizing a cooperative strategy board game called Pandemic™, which requires a team to “save humanity” by making strategic cooperative decisions to cure four global pandemics. Each student takes on a professional role that offers a unique strategic advantage; all roles are needed for success. Students must demonstrate a basic level of competency in all four IP areas to beat the game. The level of difficulty can be modified for novice, intermediate, or advanced students and the game provides a unique experience and challenge each time it is played. Methodology Undergraduate and graduate students from social work (SW), medicine (Med), nursing (Nursing), physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), and physician assistant (PA) programs were recruited via distributed flyers and emails. The study took place from October 2015 to March 2016. Three pre-post measures were used in the study, including the Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale (ATHCT) (Heinemann, Schmitt, Farrell, & Brallier, 1999), the Teams Skills Scale (TSS) (Hepburn, Tsukuda, & Fasser, 1998), and the Team Fitness Tool (TFT) (Sun Country Health Region, n.d.). After completing consent forms, students were assigned to an IPE team. Each team had a separate assigned game session date/time (3.5 hours)