Using Flipgrid to Foster Interprofessional Student Communication and Role Exploration

Harper College has over 12 different health career degree and certificate programs, yet students spend most of their time surrounded by other students in their same program. Students previously graduated without the opportunity to learn much about the professions they would soon be working alongside. During the pandemic, faculty and staff interested in interprofessional education created an activity allowing students to virtually interact with others in different health career programs. The aim was for our students to communicate their own roles and responsibilities clearly to other health care professionals in way that is understandable and be able to explain and understand the roles of other providers. Objectives were created using IPEC competencies (CC2,
RR1 and RR4). The virtual interprofessional activity was created using the video-sharing app, Flipgrid. 122 students from 5 health career programs participated, including Nursing, Physical Therapist Assistant, Dental Hygiene, Radiology and Health Information Technology. The students were placed into 20 groups of 6-7 students each. Each group had representation of at least 4 different programs. Instructors had access to each virtual group page so they could view the video submissions and the responses of their students. Students posted an initial video, three to five minutes long, explaining the roles and responsibilities of their profession. They then posted a video response to three peers in different programs asking clarifying questions and stating what was learned from their video.

Each department chose how to evaluate their students’ performance in the activity. Participants completed a 10-point Likert retrospective pre-test and post-test identifying their level of agreement with three statements aligned with the activity objectives and IPEC core competencies. The results showed an increase in the students’ self-described competency in interprofessional communication and role identity.

Instructors found the videos eye-opening when some of their students had difficulty accurately describing the roles and responsibilities of their own profession. The overall positive feedback that was received from the activity highlighted the importance of incorporating interprofessional activities within the health careers division. We now look forward to expanding on activities like this one as we begin to move them into an on-campus environment.