In November, UB physical therapy students partnered with medical students to help teach musculoskeletal exam technique as part of an interprofessional collaboration.
Published January 30, 2025
This past November, more than a dozen UB physical therapy students traveled to a new destination: medical school.
The students visited the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to help teach first-year medical students about the musculoskeletal exam as part of the Foundations of Patient-Centered Care course. “Medical students notoriously get little experience in the musculoskeletal exam during medical school,” says Andrew B. Symons, MD, clinical professor of family medicine, who directs the Foundations of Patient-Centered Care course.
The collaboration was but one of many examples of interprofessional education integrated into medical students’ learning. Across the university more broadly, interprofessional practice and education, or IPE, is a cornerstone of learning, with interprofessional curriculum and experiences being continually developed and implemented across disciplines.
Typically, Jacobs School physician-faculty coaches demonstrate physical exam skills to students, but for many of the coaches, the musculoskeletal exam is not something they routinely incorporate into their practice. So Symons thought he’d ask the physical therapy (PT) students from UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions to assist. “I knew they would appreciate having some extra expertise in the room,” he says of the coaches.
Defined by the World Health Organization, interprofessional education “occurs when two or more professions (students, residents and health workers) learn with, about, and from each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.”
As part of musculoskeletal exam education, the visiting PT students demonstrated special tests for the shoulder and knee used to evaluate acute and chronic injury. “Those sets of tests are more nuanced. They do require more of a reference to the anatomy as you’re doing those tests,” says Symons, who is also vice chair for medical student education in the Department of Family Medicine.
But the PT students imparted much more than just hands-on technique. “The opportunity to allow an allied health care professional, like a physical therapist, to teach the medical students demonstrates to the students that there are other people on the health care team who have expertise that we can rely on to help us take even better care of our patients,” Symons says.
Since medical doctors frequently refer patients to physical therapy, Symons says that it’s helpful for medical students to better understand PT processes. Further, putting the PT students into educator roles shifts the traditional dynamic, enabling peer-to-peer learning and helping students prepare for teaching and learning in clinical settings. “The best way to learn something is to teach something,” he says.
The PT students demonstrated musculoskeletal exam techniques for the medical students within the Jacobs School’s Margaret L. Wendt Foundation Clinical Competency Center, following a didactic introduction.
The collaborating PT students were in their second year of their three-year degree program and had foundational skills and clinical training experience by the time they visited the Jacobs School, says Michael R. Brown, PT, PhD, DPT, clinical assistant professor of rehabilitation science in the School of Public Health and Health Professions.
Brown says that the PT students benefited from being able to share and demonstrate skills with other health care team members. “One of the unique features of interprofessional collaborative practice is that you’re going to work with people with different skills and knowledge, so this was, I think, a great experience for them,” he says. “I hope that this experience has a positive impact on their willingness to work with other team members, which is the whole purpose behind interprofessional education.”
Brown, who is also associate director of the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, says that communication among health care team members is critical in clinical settings, and experiences like this provide practice for collaborating with medical doctors and other care providers outside of PT.
“I’m curious to see, does this experience make it easier for them to approach doctors and talk about issues with the patient? That’s something I’m planning on following up on,” Brown says, adding that he hopes to continue the collaboration between PT and MD students.
Beyond PT instruction, medical students encounter interprofessional experiences throughout all four years of school, says Michael J. Oldani, PhD, UB’s executive director for interprofessional practice and education.
IPE is emphasized across health sciences programs, says Oldani, who is also clinical associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the Jacobs School. “We’re building interprofessional culture while students are moving through their particular programs. And I think it’s really important that they bring that culture with them to the marketplace,” Oldani says.
But, broadly speaking, interprofessional practices weren’t always a focus for health care educators. “You could go all the way through with your training, having been with other medical students all day, get out into the community, and not even think about what the scope of practice is for PT, or nurses, or pharmacists.”
Now, Oldani says that emphasizing interprofessional education for future health care providers fosters a patient-centered mindset, boosts humility, and also improves learners’ diagnostic capabilities and understanding. These practices ultimately enhance patient safety and care, he says.
First-year medical student Kristina Morris says that the PT students provided helpful instruction and that she benefitted from the interprofessional experience.
“I think [interprofessional education] is valuable. Everyone has a different perspective. With the PT students, all they do is musculoskeletal work, so they know those tests very well and when to use them, so that was very helpful.”
Owen Treanor, another first-year medical student, says that he learned more about anatomy from the PT students and also gained better understanding of various practitioners’ roles following interprofessional clinical immersions.
“You get a better idea of the specific focuses of each individual practitioner and making sure that you as a physician are able to incorporate all of that into a treatment plan,” he says. “Each profession kind of develops its own personality, so having familiarity with that helps us to be better leaders in the future.”