The Implementation and Evaluation of Interprofessional Education (IPE) in the Graduate Nursing Program

Purpose: Historically, healthcare students are educated within their own discipline. However, as patients have more complex health needs, more than one discipline is needed to address issues regarding their health status. The World Health Organization recognized that collaborations taught at the student level were more likely to achieve effective collaborative practice in the healthcare settings. Studies indicate that a collaborative approach to patient care have been shown to improve patient care, decrease costs, decrease patients’ length of stay, and reduce medical errors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an Interprofessional Education (IPE) project among graduate nursing, graduate communication disorders and undergraduate exercise science students.

Methods: A problem-based IPE project was developed by the faculty from the graduate programs of nursing, communication disorders and exercise science. Students were randomly assigned to teams and worked together to develop a comprehensive treatment plan for their assigned case study. Each team presented to the class after four weeks. The students completed the Interprofessional Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey (ICCAS) to evaluate the IPE experience. The ICCAS is a 20 item, self-report tool that measures students’ skills in six domains: communication, collaboration, roles and responsibilities, collaborative patient family-centered approach, conflict management / resolutions, and team functioning. The ICCAS responses were on a 7-point Likert scale from 1= strongly disagree to 7= strongly disagree. The tool utilizes a retrospective pre-test and post-test method.

Results: 51 students participated in the IPE experience: 24 nursing, 17 communication disorders, and 10 exercise science students. A paired samples t-test showed a significant increase (p < .05) in post-test scores in all 20 competencies surveyed. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for all survey items was .98, indicating that the items have a relatively high internal consistency, similar to the original tool.

Conclusion: Incorporating IPE in the curriculum can promote interprofessional collaboration skills among graduate students. Implementing IPE as a component of the curriculum can positively impact future members of the health care team to value the benefits of collaboration and team work.