Interprofessional care of elders: Utilizing the virtual learning environment.

PURPOSE Interprofessional education (IPE) is essential for preparing nurse practitioner (NP) students to provide care in a collaborative team environment. The combination of a virtual clinic and video conferencing designed for NP students to practice interprofessional collaboration has not been studied. This study examined students' perceptions of the virtual learning environment which was developed to improve interprofessional competencies. DATA SOURCES A survey instrument developed to evaluate interprofessional practice competencies was administered to student participants from eight disciplines (n = 71) following eight video conference discussions of an elderly patient presentation in a virtual clinic. CONCLUSIONS The distribution of responses was significantly associated with interprofessional competency domain (p = .002). The distribution of responses was also significantly associated with discipline (p < .001). Participants rated the value of this activity positively. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE A virtual clinic and video conferencing was an acceptable learning platform for students, which can be used to simplify IPE logistics. The roles and responsibility competency domain is perhaps the hardest for novices to grasp. Teaching meeting facilitation is a necessary part of IPE for NP students to be able to use these skills in the future.