The dental students' perceptions of an interprofessional education course in elderly care

Background and aim: The interprofessional management of the older patients is emphasised in the gerodontology curriculum guidelines. The aim of this study was to investigate the dental students’ opinion on an interprofessional education course in elderly care conducted in a nursing home in Athens. Μethods: A pilot interprofessional education course in elderly care was developed with the collaboration of the NKUA Discipline of Gerodontology and the Nursing Department of the University of West Attica. Seven gerodontology and geriatric nursing educators designed the course and developed appropriate electronic educational material that was delivered to the students before the site visits. Sixteen nursing and dental students participated in a half-day interprofessional education course in elderly care. At the beginning of the site visit an introductory discussion was delivered which clarified the aims of the programme. Afterwards, the students, in mixed pairs of two, visited preselected residents in their rooms, interviewed and clinically examined them using dedicated dental and nursing clinical assessment tools, offered health promotion counselling, and finally developed a common care/treatment plan. The individual care plans were discussed in a large-group debriefing session. At the end of the programme the students completed Gibbs reflective practice diaries that were analysed using content analysis. Results: The qualitative analysis revealed that the dental students experienced feelings of satisfaction from teamworking. They felt privileged to have collaborated with another health discipline and exchange knowledge and skills in geriatric care. They found many of the geriatric nursing assessment tools useful for the dentists and were pleased to educate the nursing students about geriatric oral health. They also felt more respect for the nursing home’s staff. This collaboration has broadened their skills in providing holistic and comprehensive care to the older patients. They asked for more curriculum time assigned to the programme and collaboration with more disciplines. Conclusions: The dental students’ perceptions of the pilot interprofessional education programme in elderly care with the Nursing Department was very positive. Both the strengths and the weaknesses that were identified offered the instructors a useful guidance for further course development.