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ABSTRACT
Our group developed an interprofessional education (IPE) program for home-based end-of-life (EOL) care among health and welfare professionals, with the purpose of understanding professional roles in EOL care and promoting mutual respect among team members. This study aimed to verify the understanding and awareness of the elements of IPE. Seven districts in a city in Japan were cluster-randomized into an education group or a control group. A questionnaire survey using original items to evaluate two purposes of the IPE program was conducted before the IPE workshop and seven months later. In total, 291 professionals participated in the study: 64 homecare nurses, 129 care managers, and 98 head care workers. Care managers and care workers in the education group significantly understood their own and other professional roles in EOL care (p= .01, p < .0001, respectively) and gained confidence in collaboration among health and welfare professionals (p = .02, p < .0001, respectively). Care workers in the education group felt respect for team members (p = .02). For homecare nurses, no significant effects were observed. The IPE was more effective for welfare professionals who had difficulty cooperating in end-of-life care.
Acknowledgments
We thank the participants in this study. We are also grateful to Ms. Chuman, Mr. Nakazawa, Ms. Suzui, Ms. Kiyosaki, Ms. Ito, Ms. Otoguro, Ms. Iwahara, Ms. Ikeda, Ms. Yokota, Ms. Kaifu, Ms. Umezu, Ms. Kimura, Ms. Kawashima and Ms. Tominaga, Ms. Fujikawa, Dr. Okamoto and Ms. Tokuda for their research assistance.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.