title: Interprofessional care of elders: Utilizing the virtual learning environment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Interprofessional education (IPE) is essential for preparing nurse practitioner (NP) students to provide care in a collaborative team environment. The combination of a virtual clinic and video conferencing designed for NP students to practice interprofessional collaboration has not been studied. This study examined students' perceptions of the virtual learning environment which was developed to improve interprofessional competencies.
  
  
  METHODS
  A survey instrument developed to evaluate interprofessional practice competencies was administered to student participants from eight disciplines (n = 71) following eight video conference discussions of an elderly patient presentation in a virtual clinic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The distribution of responses was significantly associated with interprofessional competency domain (p = .002). The distribution of responses was also significantly associated with discipline (p < .001). Participants rated the value of this activity positively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A virtual clinic and video conferencing was an acceptable learning platform for students, which can be used to simplify IPE logistics. The roles and responsibility competency domain is perhaps the hardest for novices to grasp. Teaching meeting facilitation is a necessary part of IPE for NP students to be able to use these skills in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.
authors.forename: Mary Val
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Palumbo
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Jennie C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: De Gagne
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Gwendolyn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Murphy
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004496:Education, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007858:Learning; D013663:Teaching
keywords: Interprofessional relations; education; geriatric; nurse practitioner communication