JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Interprofessional education (IPE) on interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) encourage teamwork among dental care professionals and are increasingly becoming a part of the training program of dental and dental technology students. However, the unjustifiable focus of previous IPE and IPCP studies on student/instructor perceptions to the detriment of objective assessment of collaborative practice as an outcome measure.

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to develop the framework for a novel virtual interprofessional objective structured clinical examination (viOSCE) applicable to dental and dental technology students, to assess the effectiveness of the framework as a tool for interprofessional education (IPE), and to promote interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) among dental and dental technology students.

Methods:

The framework of the proposed novel viOSCE was developed using the modified Delphi method and then piloted. The lead researcher and a group of experts determined the content and scoring system of the experiment. Subjective data were collected by the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and a self-made scale, and objective data were collected by examiner ratings. Data were analyzed using nonparametric tests.

Results:

We successfully developed a viOSCE framework applicable to dental and dental technology students. Thirty-two of fifty students participated in the pilot study and filled out the questionnaires. According to the subjective evaluation results, teamwork skills were improved according to the RIPLS, and the only statistically significant difference in participant motivation between professionals was on the mutual evaluation scale. On the viOSCE evaluation scale, the differences between professionals in mobile repair were statistically significant, and there was a negative correlation trend according to the correlation analysis of subjective and objective scores; however, it was not statistically significant.

Conclusions:

The results confirm that viOSCE can be used as an objective evaluation tool to assess the IPE and IPCP results of the students. The study also revealed an interesting relationship between the mutual evaluation and IPCP results, further demonstrating that the IPE and IPCP results urgently need to be supplemented with objective evaluation tools. Therefore, the implementation of viOSCE as part of a larger and more complete OSCE to test the ability of students to meet undergraduate graduation requirements will be the focus of our future work.