Elsevier

Nurse Education Today

Volume 33, Issue 2, February 2013, Pages 90-102
Nurse Education Today

A systematic review of the effectiveness of interprofessional education in health professional programs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2011.11.006Get rights and content

Summary

Objective

The objective of this systematic review was to identify the best available evidence for the effectiveness of university-based interprofessional education for health students.

Background

Currently, most health professional education is delivered in a traditional, discipline specific way. This approach is limited in its ability to equip graduates with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes for effective interprofessional collaboration and for working as part of a complex health care team. Interprofessional education is widely seen as a way to improve communication between health professionals, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes.

Inclusion criteria

The review included all randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies in which two or more undergraduate or post-graduate health professional groups are engaged in interprofessional education.

Review methods

A three-stage comprehensive search of ten electronic databases as well as grey literature was conducted. Two independent reviewers assessed each paper prior to inclusion using the standardised critical appraisal instruments for evidence of effectiveness developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute.

Results

Nine published studies consisting of three randomised controlled trials, five controlled before and after studies and one controlled longitudinal study were included in the review.

Conclusion

Student's attitudes and perceptions towards interprofessional collaboration and clinical decision-making can be potentially enhanced through interprofessional education. However, the evidence for using interprofessional education to teach communication skills and clinical skills is inconclusive and requires further investigation.

Implications for research

Future randomised controlled studies explicitly focused on interprofessional education with rigorous randomisation procedures, allocation concealment, larger sample sizes, and control groups, would improve the evidence base for interprofessional education.

Introduction

Universities are committed to the preparation of graduates who will be able to work as effective members of the health care team. Nursing, medicine, pharmacy, and other allied health graduates are required to work both collaboratively and autonomously in complex clinical environments. This requires effective teamwork and communication skills. Currently, most university-based health professional education is delivered in a discipline specific mode. This approach is limited in its capacity to equip graduates with the knowledge, skills or attitudes for interprofessional collaboration and for working effectively as part of a complex health care team (Garling, 2008). It is claimed that interprofessional education (IPE) is a strategy for addressing these concerns. Interprofessional education occurs when “learners from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improved health outcomes” (Center for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education, 2002). The fundamental premise of IPE is that if health professional students learn together they will be better prepared for interprofessional collaboration and teamwork, ultimately leading to improved patient care (Barr et al., 2005). However, the evidence in support of this premise tends to be more anecdotal than empirical.

Section snippets

Background

IPE has been proposed as an innovative approach for addressing many contemporary healthcare challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO) has provided global support of IPE through various initiatives that began as early as 1973. One of the most significant examples is the Learning Together to Work Together for Health Report (World Health Organization [WHO], 1988) which promoted IPE as a way to enhance collaboration and interprofessional teamwork. More recently, the WHO's recently published

Aim of Review

The aim of this review was to appraise and synthesise the best available evidence on the effectiveness of IPE in university-based health professional programs.

Types of Participants

The review considered studies that include students of two or more undergraduate or post-graduate health professions engaged in interprofessional education, regardless of gender, age or discipline.

Types of Intervention(s)/phenomena of Interest

The review considered studies that include any formal university-based pedagogical approaches to interprofessional education.

Types of Outcomes

The review

Results

The search strategy identified 4217 papers, of which 75 papers were deemed potentially relevant to this review, based on the assessment of title and abstracts. After removal of duplicates and detailed examination, full texts were retrieved for the remaining 12 studies. After analysis of methodological quality, nine papers were identified for data extraction and analysis of results. The details of the selection process are presented in Table 3.

Attitudinal Changes

This systematic review was undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of university-based IPE. There was evidence of attitudinal changes in three of the studies reviewed (Ateah et al., 2011, Becker and Godwin, 2005, Bradley et al., 2009) and two studies (Goelen et al., 2006, Street et al., 2007) reported mixed findings. The RCT by Street et al. (2007) reported significant changes in attitudes towards IPE in nursing students only, and Goelen et al. (2006) found statistically significant

Conclusion

The results of this review indicate that student's attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration and clinical decision-making ability may be enhanced through IPE. However, little evidence exists in regard to whether the gains attributed to IPE can be sustained over time. Additionally, the evidence for using IPE to teach interprofessional communication skills, patient care objectives and clinical skills such as resuscitation is inconclusive and needs further investigation. It is important to

Acknowledgements

Support for this project has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd., an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in the project do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. We would like to acknowledge the input and support of the project team and reference group. A list of project team members is available on the project website: //www.ipeforqum.com.au

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    This article is derived from a systematic review available in the Joanna Briggs Institute Library of Systematic Reviews.

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