Still Changing the Tone: An Interprofessional Student Experience in Management of Patients with Tone Dysfunction​

Background: Physician Assistant, Physical Therapy, and Occupational Therapy students participated in Tone Day: A Collaborative IPE experience, working as interprofessional teams to best manage simulated patients with tone dysfunction.

Design: Students dispersed into pre-assigned groups where they collaborated to best manage patient/client cases. Cases provided information on patient/client roles, functions, and goals. Prompts were designed to facilitate collaborative considerations of medical and therapeutic interventions.

Results: Student groups again demonstrated improved competencies in the field of IPE during the presentation of their collaborative assessment and treatment plans for patient/client cases.

Conclusion: Student groups again demonstrated improved competencies in the field of IPE during the presentation of their collaborative assessment and treatment plans for patient/client cases with emphasis on identifying and appropriately utilizing each profession's scope of practice.​

Reflection: A consideration for next year’s project includes an additional workshop earlier in the year to better develop students' understanding of each profession's role & responsibilities on a more fundamental level.

IPE experience surveys were reviewed by participating faculty. The following themes were noted:​
- Increased knowledge of professional roles and scope of practice​
- Improved ability to advocate for profession and self​
- Desire for more hands-on interprofessional activities​
- Better understanding of tone management skills​
- Need for better Discussion Segment organization

Tone Day prepares students for interprofessional collaboration by giving them the opportunity to gain experience working with other medical specialties to develop patient plans that reflect best patient practice.