Longitudinal impact of preregistration interprofessional education on the attitudes and skills of health professionals during their early careers: a non-randomised trial with 4-year outcomes

• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060066
• Publication Date: 2022-07-20T15:21:06Z
• Authors: Ben Darlow; Melanie Brown; Eileen McKinlay; Lesley Gray; Gordon Purdie; Sue Pullon
• Keywords: Interprofessional Education; Graduation (instrument); Health Professionals

Objective To assess whether a preregistration interprofessional education (IPE) programme changed attitudes towards teamwork and team skills during health professionals’ final year of training first 3 years professional practice. Design Prospective, longitudinal, non-randomised trial. Setting Final at three academic institutions in New Zealand. Participants Students from eight disciplines eligible to attend the IPE were recruited (617/730) prior their training. 130 participants attended programme; 115 intervention 372 control included outcome analysis. Intervention The 5-week Tairāwhiti (TIPE) immersion which students experience clinical placements interdisciplinary teams, complete collaborative tasks live together shared accommodation. Main measures Data collected via five surveys 12-month intervals, containing Attitudes Towards Healthcare Teams Scale (ATHCTS), Team Skills (TSS) free-text items. Mixed-model analysis covariance, adjusting for baseline characteristics, compared scores between groups each time point. Template identified themes data. Results Mean ATHCTS TIPE 1.4 (95% CI 0.6 2.3) points higher than non-TIPE (p=0.002); 1.9 0.8 3.0) graduation 1.1 −0.1 2.4) postgraduation. TSS 1.7 0.0 3.3) (p=0.045); 3.5 1.5 5.5) 1.3 (95%CI −0.8 3.5) made substantially more comments about benefits collaboration perceived had meaningful influence on readiness work teams way they performed healthcare roles. Conclusions participation significantly improved these changes maintained over 4 years.