Health Professions Students’ Assessment of an Interprofessional Rural Public Health-Focused Rotation: A Pilot Study Based on the Community-Oriented Primary Care Approach

Using a community-oriented primary care (COPC) approach, the format for this interprofessional rural rotation was a public health focused team project based in a local health department and primary care setting. The target audience included fourth-year dental students, fourth-year undergraduate students in imaging science, second-year master of public health students, third-year medical students enrolled in the MD/MPH program, second-year nurse practitioner students, fourth-year pharmacy students, second-year MSN nursing students, and first-year PhD students. The specific learning objectives of the curriculum were drawn from emphasis areas of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative’s competency domains and included the development of students’ knowledge to function as a member of an interprofessional team to (1) engage diverse health care professionals, (2) communicate with team members to clarify each member’s responsibility in executing components of a public health intervention, (3) choose effective communication tools and techniques, (4) integrate knowledge and experience of other professions, and (5) engage themselves and others to constructively manage disagreements. Additional learning objectives centered on 10 competencies from the Master’s Degree in Public Health Core Competency Project. Assessment of 13 student participants, as a group, showed increased perceived knowledge in 4 out of 5 selected interprofessional emphasis areas and 9 out of 10 public health competencies. Our curriculum provides promising evidence for one interprofessional rural education model with proven short-term effectiveness among six health professions disciplines, in increasing student knowledge in interprofessional emphasis areas and public health competencies.