Teaching interprofessional collaboration in diabetes management: An elective course

Abstract Introduction The complexities of diabetes management necessitate interprofessional collaboration to provide optimal health outcomes, making the education of health professional students in this space important for the future workforce. Methods This article describes an interprofessional diabetes elective course designed for pharmacy, nursing, and medical students. The course aims to enhance collaborative skills and comprehensive diabetes management through interprofessional engagement and active learning. Students in the course engage with active learning through interprofessional group activities, interprofessional presentations, a simulated experience of living with diabetes for several days, and becoming certified via the American Pharmacists Association in diabetes care. Topics have been intentionally and thoughtfully selected to represent critical areas of diabetes management that health care practitioners need to be knowledgeable and skilled in to care for patients. Recent changes in the elective are described that improved the interprofessional enrollment in the elective and increased the student engagement in each topic. Results Students rated the elective highly, and commented on the value of learning about cutting‐edge diabetes management. Sixty‐six percent of students expressed understanding of the role of other professions in diabetes management, as compared with only 8.3% before taking the elective. Challenges encountered were in the proper leveling of students and content from instructors, changes in student types enrolled in the course, and being mindful of the time allotted for each class session when a great deal of content is being covered. Conclusions The elective has been a sustained model of interprofessional education, despite some challenges to enrollment, to teach a comprehensive understanding of diabetes while promoting interprofessional collaboration among pharmacy, nursing, and medical students.