An Interprofessional Student Program Providing Early Exposure to MS Care and Multidisciplinary Teams

Background: The demand for neurological care is outpacing the supply of neurologists with a looming shortage of neurologists who specialize in MS (Halpern et al., 2018). Factors improving individuals’ desire to provide MS care include the ability to improve patient quality of life, the enjoyment of interacting with MS patients, the perception that MS is a dynamic area with evolving treatment options, exposure to MS care early in training, and exposure to multidisciplinary care (Halpern et al., 2014; Teixeira-Poit et al., 2015). To build interest in MS careers, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) Workforce Development Committee designed an interprofessional student program delivered in a virtual format during COVID-19. The virtual program included self-paced modules on MS resources, MS clinical care, and health care disparities followed by a live, virtual event with an experience presentation of a person living with MS and intra- and inter-discipline discussions.

Objectives: (1) Identify MS career opportunities and resources. (2) Describe the basic pathophysiology and clinical presentation of MS. (3) Recognize the experience of a person living with MS. (4) Identify MS signs and symptoms. (5) Discuss the importance of interprofessional collaboration to optimize patient care and quality of life. (6) Identify health disparities and implicit bias to improve health outcomes.

Methods: We administered surveys to program participants and performed analyses of survey data in Stata (N=43).

Results: On average, participants rated the program an 8.8 out of 10.0. Most participants strongly agreed that the self-paced modules strengthened their knowledge about: information, resources, and opportunities for pursuing careers in MS care (72%); basic neurological structures involved with MS (70%); clinical phenotypes and typical disease courses (69%); possible clinical presentations and most prevalent symptoms (86%); racial disparities in health care (86%); social determinants of health (80%); the impact of implicit bias on decision making among healthcare professionals (75%); and strategies to address implicit bias in health care (78%). Furthermore, most participants strongly agreed that the live event helped them learn about an MS patient’s experience related to health care and daily activities (89%) and that intra- and inter-discipline discussions helped them learn about key clinical issues of MS addressed by their profession (62%) and by other members of the multidisciplinary team (69%).

Conclusions: The interprofessional student program is an effective strategy to expose early career professionals to MS care and multidisciplinary teams, which may translate into interest in providing MS care that can address MS workforce shortages.