Background: One way to improve the quality of palliative care for elderly patients is to use an interprofessional team approach, which may be encouraged through interprofessional education (IPE). However, the effectiveness of IPE interventions has yet to be proven. We therefore designed a randomized controlled trial using a simulated practice setting to measure the effects of an IPE intervention on medical students’ clinical behaviour.Methods: Undergraduate nursing (N = 20) and medical (N = 20) students were evenly assigned to either an intervention or a control group. Students in the intervention group received interprofessional curriculum (12 teaching units), and the control group was given written material containing the content of the IPE curriculum. Using a pre-post design, clinical behaviour of matched pairs of nursing and medical students was analyzed for qualitative (care objectives) and quantitative aspects of communication (initiation, interruptions, speaking time, and exchanged information items). Statistical analyses included chi-square, Fisher’s exact, and t-tests, where appropriate.Results: Care objective scores improved in both groups (categories N = 6, p-range = intervention group: .001–.630; control group: .001–.888). Interruptions and speaking time showed no change between or within groups, while the number of nursing student-initiated contacts increased (p = .0007). The number of information items exchanged increased significantly in both the intervention group (Pre: M = 9.65, SD = 1.79; Post: M = 12.35, SD = 1.87; p = .001) and the control group (Pre: M = 8.75, SD = 2.59; Post: M = 11.75, SD = 2.22; p = .001).Conclusions:We found a moderate effect of IPE on a change in interprofessionalcommunication style.

BackgroundDelivering palliative care to elderly, dying patients is a present and future challenge. In Germany, this has been underlined by a 2009 legislation implementing palliative care as compulsory in the medical curriculum. While the number of elderly patients is increasing in many western countries multimorbidity, dementia and frailty complicate care. Teaching palliative care of the elderly to an interprofessional group of medical and nursing students can help to provide better care as acknowledged by the ministry of health and its expert panels.In this study we researched and created an interdisciplinary curriculum focussing on the palliative care needs of the elderly which will be presented in this paper.MethodsIn order to identify relevant learning goals and objectives for the curriculum, we proceeded in four subsequent stages.We searched international literature for existing undergraduate palliative care curricula focussing on the palliative care situation of elderly patients; we searched international literature for palliative care needs of the elderly. The searches were sensitive and limited in nature. Mesh terms were used where applicable. We then presented the results to a group of geriatrics and palliative care experts for critical appraisal. Finally, the findings were transformed into a curriculum, focussing on learning goals, using the literature found.ResultsThe literature searches and expert feedback produced a primary body of results. The following deduction domains emerged: Geriatrics, Palliative Care, Communication & Patient Autonomy and Organisation & Social Networks. Based on these domains we developed our curriculum.ConclusionsThe curriculum was successfully implemented following the Kern approach for medical curricula. The process is documented in this paper. The information given may support curriculum developers in their search for learning goals and objectives.