Students Participate in Interprofessional Team Case Conferences Across the State

The South Carolina AHEC System has partnered with a team of interprofessional faculty at MUSC to develop the Interprofessional Team Case Conference (ITCC) initiative. The ITCC provides health professions students an opportunity to participate in collaborative, interprofessional patient case review to learn more about other health professionals’ roles and to apply the knowledge of their respective fields to improve patient care. The majority of students participate during their community-based rotations while staying in AHEC regional housing or placed in other areas of the state. The project also utilizes web-based videoconferencing to connect students regardless of their individual locations, for the collaborative learning experience. Students from eight different programs from four academic institutions have participated in the ITCC sessions across South Carolina during the last year.

For students, the ITCC includes individually reviewing a patient case and answering a few questions.  Next, students meet as a group to develop an interprofessional, longitudinal care plan. The care plan focuses on 6 main categories including:

• Priorities for the management of the patient

• Consultations and referrals, as appropriate, and how to facilitate them

• Identification of community resources

• Identification of priorities in the patient’s care

• Patient/caregiver education

• Population health-related implications of the case

Based on student evaluations and faculty feedback, the statewide program has been very successful. On average, students spend one to two hours preparing for the case conference and consistently rate the program highly. The quality of the discussion and facilitation have been rated as excellent (4.37 and 4.34, respectively, out of 5).  Students strongly agreed the activity enhanced their appreciation of interprofessional collaboration (4.55 out of 5) and fostered their interprofessional collaboration abilities (4.39 out of 5). Overall students stated their participation in this activity will positively influence their future team based approach to patient care (4.5 out of 5).  Additionaly, the qualitative feedback from students emphasized the project’s value on their evaluations. For example:

This experience will influence my future approach to team-based care since it is important to incorporate a multidisciplinary team, especially when patients are very complex. I learned different perspectives from various health care professionals, so I thought it was a great way to learn to collaborate with others in the future.

It is important to remember that as a future physician, there are so many other people with ideas on ways to help each patient. They all bring their own experiences and have their connections and resources to help the patient. For complicated cases, making the necessary referrals and working cohesively with several other professions is essential.  It is important to remember their priorities for the patient and work together in a respective manner.

Regional Case Conferences

Twenty-eight students have participated in the lowcountry region including students from the following programs: MUSC physician assistant (3), A.T. Still School of Osteopathic Medicine (8), MUSC physical therapy (3), MUSC nurse practitioner (2), MUSC public health (6), MUSC occupational therapy (1), MUSC pharmacy (4) and USC pharmacy (1).  Lowcountry AHEC plans to host four sessions in the forthcoming academic year. 

Mid-Carolina AHEC hosted three sessions totaling 18 participants, including students from the following programs: MUSC physician assistant (7), MUSC medical (3), MUSC public health (4) and MUSC pharmacy (4).

Pee Dee AHEC collaborated with Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) and MUSC. They hosted one session with five students from the following programs: VCOM medicine (2), MUSC medicine (1), MUSC nurse practitioner (1), and MUSC physical therapy (1).

To learn more about the ITCC project or to participate, contact your regional health professions student coordinators. Contact information is available on our website.