Students' perception of a hybrid interprofessional education course in a clinical diabetes setting: a qualitative study

Abstract

Objectives: To explore what the student participants learned and how they felt about the use of three educational settings, namely, face-to-face workshop setting, asynchronous and synchronous online learning environments and interactions with outpatients in a real-world clinical setting in a hybrid interprofessional education course. Methods: This qualitative study used semi-structured in-depth interviews with healthcare undergraduate student participants in a course comprising workshops in three educational settings. A total of 15 healthcare undergraduate students, which included four medical, three pharmacy, five nursing and three nutrition students, completed this IPE course. All students agreed to participate in the study. We conducted four focus groups selected using convenient sampling. Focus group transcripts were analysed using the 'Steps for Coding and Theorization' qualitative data analysis method. We investigated the students' perception through the experience of three educational settings in the hybrid interprofessional education course. Results: The students recognised that this course had three types of educational spaces, namely, real, semi-real and unreal. Then, the positive changes in the awareness of students are trained in recognition of the patient perspective, the recognition of the roles discharged by the other professions and the recognition of the functions of their own profession after experiencing the educational spaces designated for this course. Conclusions: The repeated experience of participants to real, semi-real and unreal educational spaces promoted changes over time in the students' awareness of interprofessional competencies with respect to patient-centred care and ameliorated their readiness to undertake interprofessional tasks.