Enhanced nursing self-awareness and pharmacotherapy knowledge-base: peer-teaching and nursing/pharmacy interprofessional education

The contribution of interprofessional education in developing competent undergraduate nursing students: integrative literature review

BACKGROUND

Effective interprofessional team collaboration is one of the necessary domains for successful interprofessional collaborative practices in healthcare (IPCP), which is crucial for the delivery of safe and quality healthcare services. Therefore, understanding the contribution of interprofessional education in nursing students is vital to improving collaboration practices in nursing students, in preparation for the dynamics that await after registration in practice amongst the interprofessional team. Thus, the aim of the study was to summarise the contribution of interprofessional education in nursing education in developing competent undergraduate nursing students.

DESIGN

The integrative literature review design as described by Whittemore and Knafl was adopted for the review. The review consists of five steps, namely, problem identification, literature search, data analysis, data interpretation, and the last step was data presentation. Three databases were searched for the articles, namely CINHAL, Scopus, and Science Direct. Articles were retrieved using Search terms such as "Competence," "Contribution,", "Development," "Interprofessional education" and "Undergraduate nursing students" retrieved Articles published between 2018 and 2022 were selected.

RESULTS

Three themes emerged from the review, namely the promotion of patient safety in nursing practice, the socialisation of nursing students in interprofessional collaboration, and the promotion of the development of professional identity.

CONCLUSION

This study is the first step in determining the contributions of early interprofessional education to nursing education. It could set the stage for further studies that examine strategies the undergraduate nursing curriculum can adopt and develop sound interprofessional competencies that promote patient safety and quality healthcare by nursing students.

IMPACT

The developers of the nursing curriculum and nursing educators can use the results in developing a curriculum that includes interprofessional education with the aim of improving the quality of teaching and learning that advances competent and safe nursing students.

The outcomes of interprofessional education in prelicensure nursing education: An integrative review

OBJECTIVES

Nurses are at the center of patient care, serving as the link between patients and their various healthcare providers. As healthcare complexity grows it is increasingly important for research focused on nursing education. This review synthesizes research on the impact of interprofessional education for prelicensure nursing students with the intent to guide curriculum development.

METHODS

The databases Medline (PubMed), Cochrane Library, CINAHL and EBSCO Qualitative were searched for full text articles in the English language published between January 2016 and July 2021 using MeSH terms "interprofessional education" and "healthcare students" and "multiprofessional" and "impact" and "effectiveness" or "collaborative nursing practice" or "nursing students" or "interprofessional curriculum" or "interdisciplinary education" or "collaboration." A systematic review resulted in 11 selected studies for detailed evaluation.

RESULTS

After evaluation, the following three themes were identified: 1) IPE impact should not only be measured through learners' perceptions; 2) Modifiable and nonmodifiable factors are associated with IPE effectiveness; and 3) Various instruments and methods can be used for measuring outcomes.

CONCLUSION

This review contributes to future development of IPE in prelicensure registered nursing curricula. Educators should incorporate performance changes into evaluation, be aware of both modifiable and non-modifiable factors to increase effectiveness and use appropriate validated instruments to measure desired outcomes. Although literature results regarding IPE are encouraging, more research is needed to identify evidence-based approaches with best practice methods for instruction, content delivery, evaluation, and competency assessment.

Interprofessional education focused on medication safety: a systematic review

Safe medication use necessitates interprofessional working, with calls to enhance interprofessional education (IPE) focusing on medication safety (MS) in healthcare professional (HCP) curricula. Little is known about the design, delivery or evaluation of such activities. This systematic literature review describes MS-focused IPE activities in pre-qualification HCP programmes. MedLine, EMBASE, CINAHL and ERIC were searched, relevant studies identified and data extracted. The McGill Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool was employed. The 3P (presage-process-product) theory structured deductive analysis. Thirty-one studies were included, reporting on 30 activities, mostly undertaken in North America or United Kingdom. Presage/Design: Most reported activities involved pharmacy, nursing, medical or physician assistant students learning with one or more other HCP group. Few studies matched student groups' skills or experiences. Few studies reported theoretical underpinnings. Process/Delivery: Multiple pedagogical approaches were employed, mostly social construction, and low- and high-fidelity simulation-based learning. Few studies reported learning outcomes or summative assessment, more reported formative assessment. Product/evaluation: Outcomes measured were learners' opinions, satisfaction or attitudes toward interprofessional working and findings were generally positive. Few studies reported on student development or outcomes specific to medication safety. Lack of integration of qualitative/quantitative components of mixed methods studies and limited outcome measurements' validity or reliability weakened study quality. MS-focused IPE for pre-qualification HCPs is well received by students. Design of future activities could be enhanced by employing theory and ensuring matching of students' and groups' skills, professional identity and learner attributes to enhance learning in an interprofessional setting. Future delivery should embed MS-focused IPE into the standard curricula to optimize constructive alignment, learner engagement, quality and drive development. The required skillset in pre-qualification HCP programmes to facilitate future safe medication practice, together with the associated learning outcomes and assessment approaches, should be defined. The quality of scholarly studies examining these activities needs improvement.

A mixed-methods evaluation of interprofessional education in palliative care: changes in student attitudes towards health professions

Background: Future health care increasingly requires interprofessional thinking and decision-making which should be taught during medical study and vocational training. Against this backdrop, the Medical Faculty at TU Dresden developed an elective course on "Interprofessional Palliative Medicine" in which medical students and trainees in different health professions have been taught together since the 2017 summer semester. An extensive and simultaneous course evaluation conducted in the 2019 summer semester and 2019/20 winter semester investigated if and how strongly attendees' perceptions of interprofessional collaboration had changed as a result of the elective course. Method: The course evaluations included quantitative pre- and post-questions on a questionnaire (n=50) covering, among other things, the perception of roles, according to the Role Perception Questionnaire, and qualitative interviews (n=20). The pre- and post-questions were compared using the Wilcoxon test for related samples and the effect sizes were calculated according to Cohen. The qualitative interviews were analyzed for content using a combined deductive-inductive approach. Results: It was seen that the perceptions and attitudes of each professional group were mutually influenced as a result of the elective course. The quantitative analysis showed the largest effects regarding gains in understanding the roles and competencies of one's own and the other professions (d=0.975) and a reciprocal feeling of "being dependent on each other" (d=0.845). In the interviews, it was seen that medical students developed a greater appreciation for the subject matter and tasks associated with nursing. A strengthening of self-perception was primarily found in the trainees. Conclusion: The elective course on "Interprofessional Palliative Medicine" contributed to the changes in attitude not only with an increased self-awareness of one's own professional group, but also a greater understanding of the roles and expertise of the other health professions. The results speak for the benefit of expanding the interprofessional courses offered.