Using digital story telling to assess health students' knowledge of inter-professional roles in the care of the older adult

Background Digital story telling (DST) is an innovative way to allow students to assess the care needs of an older adult and creates an opportunity for interdisciplinary involvement. Traditionally, a single healthcare discipline approach is used by higher education institutions for preclinical training in the care of the older adult. Interprofessional learning (IPL) is generally not integrated well into the health professional curricula of Australian Universities. Aim To explore the use of Mask-Ed as a way of eliciting students understanding of their roles in patient care and to determine readiness for IPL in a cohort of health students prior to clinical placement. Method An online survey of students prior to their first clinical placement was undertaken. The survey incorporated a digital story of a Mask-Ed character and the readiness for IPL scale. Results Students recognised the importance of IPL. However, only 25% of students had an advanced understanding of their own roles and no student showed an advanced understanding of the other disciplines roles in the care of the older adult. Conclusions In this study, DST using Mask-Ed assisted with students' understanding of interprofessional roles in the care of the older adult. Our findings demonstrated that IPL is important, and this was further enhanced by the use of Mask-Ed simulation.