Improving attitudes toward poverty and attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration through online interprofessional synchronous poverty simulation: A mixed methods comparison study

Introduction: Interprofessional poverty simulations can improve attitudes toward poverty and attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration. This study evaluated an immersive synchronous online poverty simulation.Methods: A mixed-method study was conducted to compare the outcomes of onsite and online interprofessional poverty simulations. The simulations were carried out at a private university in the US 6 times onsite between 2017 and 2019, and 4 times online between 2020 and 2021. The quantitative portion utilized two pre- and post-test questionnaires: the Attitudes Toward Poverty Short Form and the University of West England Interprofessional Questionnaire, which evaluate attitudes towards poverty and interprofessional collaboration respectively. Additionally, qualitative interviews of selected students were conducted 2-4 weeks after the simulations. Quantitative data were analyzed using paired t-tests for individual results, and independent samples t-tests to compare onsite with online pre-post changes. Qualitative data were evaluated using thematic analysis by faculty members from three disciplines.Results: The research indicates that both online and onsite poverty simulations can improve student attitudes toward both poverty and interprofessional collaboration. Results for 196 online participants were compared to 325 onsite participants. Both online and onsite groups showed significant improvements in attitudes toward poverty and interprofessional collaboration (p < .05). The quantitative effect size was smaller for online than onsite, but the difference was less in 2021, the second year of the online simulation, likely due to improved implementation techniques. The qualitative data suggested a less intense emotional response for online participants compared to onsite.  Overall results suggest that there is a learning curve in offering an effective online poverty simulation, but that online poverty simulations do significantly influence attitudes toward poverty and interprofessional collaboration.Recommendation: In the article, lessons learned are shared. Online simulations can effectively change attitudes toward poverty, and allow many students to participate who otherwise might not be able to, but the magnitude of the impact for our population was not as great online as onsite. It is recommended that schools of nursing and faculty of other healthcare professions consider the pros and cons of incorporating interprofessional poverty simulations in their curricula.