Incorporating grand rounds into an existing pharmacy ethics course: An interprofessional education opportunity

A meaningful, interprofessional education experience was developed by incorporating an existing social work grand rounds into a pharmacy ethics course. Participants included third-year student pharmacists, master's social work students, and licensed master's social workers. Each grand rounds session focused on a different issue regarding social justice and access to care. Grand rounds consisted of a 30-min presentation followed by a 40-min interprofessional panel discussion on issues relevant to the topic. At the conclusion of grand rounds, small interprofessional student groups discussed how interprofessional collaboration could improve the patient experience. This collaborative grand rounds, which has been offered for three consecutive years (2016–2018), has collectively had 450 attendees: 240 student pharmacists, 94 social work students, and 116 licensed master's social work professionals. A post-session survey allowed students to rate how well the session met the learning objectives and the perceived value of the interdisciplinary experience. Students indicated a high level of agreement that each offering achieved the learning objectives, and felt the interprofessional design enhanced their learning and provided them with a greater appreciation for the importance of interprofessional practice. Incorporating an existing grand rounds into a pharmacy ethics course was a successful approach for providing a meaningful interprofessional education experience in a real-world setting, and is a model that can easily be adopted by others for a wide range of health professions student learners.