Impact of Interprofessional Education on Nursing Student Outcomes in an Online Environment

Purpose: The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has integrated interprofessional collaboration expectations into its Essentials for baccalaureate (2008) master’s (2011) and doctoral education for advanced practice (2006).While there is support for implementation, there is a lack of data and patterns which to follow currently. The purpose of this nursing research study was to investigate the impact of interprofessional collaboration on nursing student outcomes in the online environment. A co-teaching model was implemented in an online environment to provide interprofessionally lead nursing sciences courses to nursing students. Methods: The convenience sample included 838 nursing students, of which 799 completed both online nursing science courses. The number of students completing the pathophysiology courses in the two sessions prior to the implementation of interdisciplinary collaborative teaching equaled 194 students and in the four sessions following the implementation of an interdisciplinary collaborative teaching methodology, 605 students completed the courses.  

Results: The t-test and Chi square test were used to assess the correlation between the student evaluations prior to and following implementation of interprofessional collaboration. Levene’s tests for equality of variances were conducted to assess the internal consistency of the measurement scales and all data. Results indicated that the overall student satisfaction rating with the pathophysiology online course was significant at the p < 0.05 following the implementation of the interprofessional model. Student enrollment prior to and after implementation collaborative teaching was calculated. Prior to implementation of collaborative teaching, the total enrollment in two classes of pathophysiology was 194 and after the institution of collaborative teaching the total student enrollment was 605. This reflects a significant increase of 32%.

Conclusion: Today, the complex healthcare delivery system necessitates a shift from traditional education to an interprofessional collaborative teaching model that generates knowledge from interaction with a variety of educators from a variety of disciplines (Hean, Craddock, & Hammick, 2012).  Through utilization of interprofessional education, the student is gaining knowledge specific to their profession while gaining a greater understanding of and respect for other professions. Nursing curricula is needed which fosters both an interprofessional learning of shared knowledge between healthcare disciplines and the discipline-specific learning essential for each professional practice.