Attitudes towards Interprofessional education in the medical curriculum: a systematic review of the literature

Abstract

Background: There is agreement among educators and professional bodies that interprofessional education needs to be implemented at the pre-registration level. We performed a systematic review assessing interprofessional learning interventions, measuring attitudes towards interprofessional education and involving pre-registration medical students across all years of medical education. Methods: A systematic literature review was performed using PubMed, PsycINFO, EThOS, EMBASE, PEDro and SCOPUS. Search terms were composed of interprofession*, interprofessional education, inter professional, inter professionally, IPE, and medical student. Inclusion criteria were 1) the use of a validated scale for assessment of attitudes towards IPE, and results for more than 35 medical students; 2) peer-reviewed articles in English and German, including medical students; and 3) results for IPE interventions published after the 2011 Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) report. We identified and screened 3995 articles. After elimination of duplicates or non-relevant topics, 278 articles remained as potentially relevant for full text assessment. We used a data extraction form including study designs, training methods, participant data, assessment measures, results, and medical year of participants for each study. A planned comprehensive meta-analysis was not possible. Results: This systematic review included 23 articles with a pre-test-post-test design. Interventions varied in their type and topic. Duration of interventions varied from 25 min to 6 months, and interprofessional groups ranged from 2 to 25 students. Nine studies (39%) reported data from first-year medical students, five (22%) from secondyear students, six (26%) from third-year students, two (9%) from fourth-year students and one (4%) from sixth-year students. There were no studies including fifth-year students. The most frequently used assessment method was the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) (n = 6, 26%). About half of study outcomes showed a significant increase in positive attitudes towards interprofessional education after interventions across all medical years.

Attitudes of medical students towards interprofessional education: A mixed-methods study

“…Nevertheless, the complexity of teaching for different healthcare disciplines, logistical problems and busy timetables raise issues concerning the introduction of IPE interventions. Current undergraduate literature shows a trend for earlier IPE introduction [5,6], but the optimal timing for the IPE intervention is unclear [7]. IPE interventions can be measured by using validated attitudes scales based on IPE domains.…”

Learning to swallow together: Medical and speech and language therapy student interprofessional learning about dysphagia

“…IPE is essential for the awakening of healthcare students to the need for collaborative working to enhance patient care (WHO, 2010). Studies have demonstrated a positive attitude by students towards IPE (Berger-Estilita et al, 2020) with some evidence for enhanced patient health outcomes (Oosterom et al, 2019;Shrader et al, 2018). Our study explored MED and SLT student perspectives about their experience following one 3-hour classroom-based IPE workshop that focussed on a complex health condition that both disciplines would manage collaboratively when qualified.…”

“…Several systematic reviews have evaluated the attitudes of healthcare students towards IPE. Berger-Estilita et al (2020) found more than 50% of their included studies demonstrated a significant increase in positive attitudes towards IPE by students following an IPE experience. Findings suggest that following IPE attitudes and perceptions of each other's profession improves (Reeves et al, 2016;Spaulding et al, 2019) with a significant improvement in collaborative knowledge and skills (Reeves et al, 2016) and behaviour (Spaulding et al, 2019).…”

Does Interprofessional Scenario-Based Simulation Training Change Attitudes Towards Interprofessional Learning – A Pretest-Posttest Study

“…The revised version of the 19 item RIPLS with four subscales (teamwork and collaboration, negative professional identity, positive professional identity, roles and responsibilities) was chosen, 14 because it is the most widely used scale measuring attitudes towards IPL. 5 The items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = undecided, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree). Given the reverse scoring of items in subscale two and four, higher scores on each subscale suggest more positive attitudes to IPE.…”