Introduction/Rationale: Virtual Interprofessional Education (IPE) offers a powerful solution for training occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) and other health professionals while overcoming logistical challenges of international and multi-institution collaboration. By leveraging technology, virtual IPE facilitates learning across disciplines and cultures, preparing students to address global health concerns (WHO, 2010).
Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will be prepared to (1) plan and execute virtual interprofessional education (IPE) experiences and (2) describe the benefits of IPE to Occupational Therapy practice.
Methods/Approach: This presentation will describe a step-by-step process of designing and implementing sustainable virtual IPE experiences to allow for collaboration across multiple universities and international borders. Several educators from different programs and universities have cultivated the process that includes: (1) exploring collective curricular needs; (2) designing learning objectives that address professional, cultural, and curricular learning needs; (3) developing a student recruitment strategy that promotes sustainability; (4) creating a learning strategy that actively engages students; (5) facilitating the IPE learning activity with reflection components that address learning objectives; (6) designing and implementing an evaluation plan; (7) evolving the learning situation based on evaluation results and educational trends.
Results: Findings of designing and implementing this virtual IPE process include increased interprofessional student learning, as measured by pre/post test scores using the SPICE-R2, sustainable annual offerings, and high satisfaction among students and interprofessional educators.
Practice Implications/Conclusion/Contribution to the occupational therapy profession: Virtual IPE enhances occupational therapy education by fostering global collaboration, accessibility, and interprofessional understanding, improving patient care and preparing students for future healthcare challenges.