A co-curricular diabetes-specific elective with interprofessional students and faculty

Background and purpose: Develop and assess the effectiveness of an interprofessional co-curricular elective in improving pharmacy students’ confidence in providing diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) to patients. Educational activity and setting: As part of an interprofessional collaboration, a student organized diabetes-specific enrichment elective, was offered originally to medical students and then extended to include pharmacy students. The interprofessional elective included an overview of diabetes and its prevention, medications, insulin therapy/administration, blood glucose monitoring, insulin pumps, nutrition and fitness. This elective served as a co-curricular activity, in that it was not offered for course credits, rather provided an opportunity to learn in an interprofessional environment with small group, unstructured interactions. The impact of the elective on pharmacy student confidence was evaluated using a retrospective pre-post survey. Findings: A total of 16 pharmacy students participated (response rate of 63%). A Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed an increase in students’ confidence in most of the areas assessed. Eighty percent of respondents found the elective valuable. An interprofessional co-curricular diabetes-specific elective significantly improved pharmacy students’ confidence in providing DMSES to patients in the majority of assessed areas. Pharmacy and medical students were given the opportunity to learn alongside one another and learn from an interprofessional team of instructors in a setting that modeled such communication and collaboration. Developing such enrichment electives may be beneficial to equip students with the skills needed to provide education/support to patients with chronic diseases and interact with other health professionals effectively.