Kettering College Holds Interprofessional Simulation Event
Kettering College physician assistant (PA) and respiratory care (RT) students recently took part in an interprofessional simulation event with a focus on ventilator management in the RT lab. Simulation activities at the event were created to mimic real-life situations where healthcare professionals benefit from collaboration across specialties to best serve the patient.
Alisa French, RT Chair and Associate Professor, explains the importance of interprofessional education: “As RT students prepare and deliver cross-disciplinary education, this enhances knowledge and critical thinking skills for both the presenter and the learner and helps prepare students to work with various populations. Collaborations among professions improve understanding of other disciplines and help develop self-confidence and leadership skills.”
“…This enhances knowledge and critical thinking skills for both the presenter and the learner.”
-Alisa French, RT Chair and Associate Professor
The simulation day brought didactic learning to life for the students. Jill-Renae Gulczinski, PA Associate Professor, supplied learning objectives and RT faculty provided the learning content that was presented by senior RT students, under the direction of RT faculty and John Hutsell, Respiratory Educator for Kettering Health Main Campus. RT Professor French says, “The PA and RT faculty collaborated to create a safe, supportive learning environment for our students to explore and learn about non-invasive and invasive mechanical ventilation.”
Professor Gulczinski points out, “Early on in their pulmonology module, the PA students learned from RT Assistant Professor Nick Johnston about the role of the respiratory therapist in the care team and how PAs and RTs work together. Now they are able to see that relationship in action.”
“This type of interprofessional learning helps to foster relationships that the future providers can carry into clinical practice…”
-Jill-Renae Gulczinski, PA Associate Professor
PA students rotated through stations covering BiPAP and CPAP, Compliance and Resistance, Basic Modes of Ventilation, Radiology, where they worked in small groups to interpret chest radiographs, and Advanced Airway, where they practiced intubation skills. Gulczinski says, “This type of interprofessional learning helps to foster relationships that the future providers can carry into clinical practice and helps both professions feel more confident about interacting with one another in the care of patients.”
The simulation day is an ongoing event at Kettering College and is always well received by participants, who are able to put the knowledge they are learning in the classroom to work. Professor Gulczinski says, “PA students and faculty are very grateful to our colleagues and future colleagues in the RT department for their education of our students.”
RT Professor and Chair French says, “The cross-discipline education allowed students to learn with, from, and about each other, demonstrating mutual respect while improving sharing of valuable information on mechanical ventilation in the evolving healthcare environment.”
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