American Research Journal of Nursing

Introduction: This article reports a pilot of the Recovery-Based Interprofessional Distance Education (RIDE) rotation - an interprofessional education (IPE) experience for graduate psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, pharmacy, nutrition and exercise physiology students. The program was offered in a blended format, with online content enhanced by a 3 day, team-based clinical intensive experience. Methods: In this pilot, participants ( N = 12) completed pre and post assessments before and after the experience. Results: Pretest scores on the benefits of team training and contributing insight to teams were high with pretest means of 4.7 and 4.5 respectively. The experience did not change participants' perception of team training benefits, nor their perception that they could contribute valuable insights to teams, but attitudes about offering assistance to team members were improved. Student participation and these preliminary results indicate that offering an IPE program in an online blended format is feasible and acceptable to both graduate students and faculty. Discussion: These results suggest that an IPE program can enhance practical, team-based skills in graduate nursing, pharmacy, nutrition and exercise physiology students and can be feasibly delivered using an online blended approach. Conclusions: More research is needed examining formal IPE programs in graduate curricula, and the sustainability of such programs. Acknowledgement: This project was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration, HRSA Grant number: D09HP25932-02-01