The effect of continuing interprofessional education on improving learners’ self-efficacy and attitude toward interprofessional learning and collaboration

ABSTRACT

We aimed to assess the effect of continuing interprofessional education on collaborative self-efficacy, attitude toward the team, and interprofessional learning in workplace-based learning situations. This was a quasi-experimental study conducted in two educational hospitals. Two hundred and ten participants including nursing and medicine from general medicine, internal medicine, and emergency medicine, entered the study and were categorized in the census’s intervention group (n = 97) and control group (n = 113). Continuing interprofessional education interventions included interprofessional rounds and workshops. Attitudes toward the team and interprofessional learning and collaborative self-efficacy were assessed using the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning, Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams, and Interprofessional Collaborator Assessment. Participants’ attitude toward the team (p-value <.001), attitude toward interprofessional learning (p-value <.001), and interprofessional collaborative self-efficacy (p-value <.001) were significantly improved compared to participants’ scores in the control group. Integrating the principles of continuing education, interprofessional education, and workplace-based learning provided an effective learning situation through interactive relationships and active collaboration of participants. The findings revealed a significant educational effect of the intervention on attitude toward interprofessional learning and the team, and a small effect on self-efficacy of interprofessional collaboration.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional education
• interprofessional learning
• collaboration
• continuing interprofessional education
• workplace-based learning

Acknowledgments

The researchers would like to express their appreciation for the participants’ contributions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

F.K. conceptualised and designed the study. Y.GH. collected the data. Y.GH. and F.K. wrote the main manuscript. All authors met the criteria for authorship and had a role in preparing the manuscript. In addition, all authors approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee at the Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. (ID: IR. SSU. REC.1397.011). All participants were provided with information on the study, and written consent forms were obtained from all the participants. This work was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Additional information

Funding

This report is part of a large project that is supported by the National Center for Strategic Research in Medical Education (NASR) [No.960914] and Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences [ID: 5605]. The funders had no role in the study’s design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation or preparation of the manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Fatemeh Keshmiri

Fatemeh Keshmiri Ph.D is an Associate Professor at the Departments of Medical Education, SSU. She was the chair of the Education Development center for 4 years. Now, she serves as the Director of Technology Development Center SSU, Yazd, Iran

Yaser Ghelmani

Yaser Ghelmani MD, is an Assistance Professor at Departments of Internal Medicine, SSU. He is the chair of Research deputy and clinical research center in SSU, Yazd, Iran.