Feasibility of Incorporating an Interprofessional Student Program to Other Institutions, Universities: Stephanie Teixeira-Poit, PhD

WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

"We know that not all the care provided to an individual with MS is by subspecialists. A lot of care is provided by general neurologists, so having a comfort level of understanding MS is important in order to provide good, quality care, and to be willing to take on patients."

It is no secret that the burden of neurological care outweighs the personnel available to care for these patients. In an effort to attract young medical professionals to the multiple sclerosis (MS) field, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Workforce Development Committee created an interprofessional student program delivered in virtual format during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual program included self-paced modules on MS resources, MS clinical care, and health care disparities, followed by a live, virtual event with an experience presentation of a person living with MS.

A total of 43 program participants completed a survey about the initiative, with data recently presented at the 2022 Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) Annual Meeting, June 1-4, in National Harbor, Maryland. On average, participants rated the program an 8.8 out of 10.0. Most participants strongly agreed that the self-paced modules strengthened their knowledge about several key aspects to MS care, including its presentation and the disparities that currently exist. Furthermore, most participants strongly agreed that the live event helped them learn about a patient with MS’s experience related to health care and daily activities (89%), and that intra- and inter-discipline discussions helped them learn about key issues of MS addressed by their profession (62%) and other members of the multidisciplinary team (69%).

Teixeira-Poit, an associate professor at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, believes the program is fairly easy to initiate, the only difficulty coming with organizing the final capstone event. In an interview with NeurologyLive^®, she discussed the feasibility of implementing this program in institutions and organizations across the country, along with why there are additional benefits outside of increasing overall interest to MS.

Click here for more coverage of CMSC 2022.

REFERENCE
1. Teixiera-Poit S, Dalton P, Flach A, et al. An interprofessional student program providing early exposure to MS care and multidisciplinary teams. Presented at: CMSC Annual Meeting, 2022; June 1-4; National Harbor, MD. MDC-06