The positive impact of interprofessional education: A controlled trial to evaluate a programme for health professional students Approaches to teaching and learning

Abstract

Background: Collaborative interprofessional practice is an important means of providing effective care to people with complex health problems. Interprofessional education (IPE) is assumed to enhance interprofessional practice despite challenges to demonstrate its efficacy. This study evaluated whether an IPE programme changed students' attitudes to interprofessional teams and interprofessional learning, students' self-reported effectiveness as a team member, and students' perceived ability to manage long-term conditions. Methods: A prospective controlled trial evaluated an eleven-hour IPE programme focused on long-term conditions' management. Pre-registration students from the disciplines of dietetics (n∈=∈9), medicine (n∈=∈36), physiotherapy (n∈=∈12), and radiation therapy (n∈=∈26) were allocated to either an intervention group (n∈=∈41) who received the IPE program or a control group (n∈=∈42) who continued with their usual discipline specific curriculum. Outcome measures were the Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale (ATHCTS), Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS), the Team Skills Scale (TSS), and the Long-Term Condition Management Scale (LTCMS). Analysis of covariance compared mean post-intervention scale scores adjusted for baseline scores. Results: Mean post-intervention attitude scores (all on a five-point scale) were significantly higher in the intervention group than the control group for all scales. The mean difference for the ATHCTS was 0.17 (95 %CI 0.05 to 0.30; p∈=∈0.006), for the RIPLS was 0.30 (95 %CI 0.16 to 0.43; p∈