Nursing students’ perceived ability to practice interprofessional collaboration after the inclusion of virtual and immersion interprofessional education activities: A quantitative exploration

Background

Little is known about the influence of interprofessional education (IPE) on interprofessional collaboration (IPC), particularly following the COVID 19 pandemic.

Aim

To examine nursing students’ perceived ability to practice IPC after exposure to virtual lectures and immersive clinical IPE activities founded on the competencies from the National Interprofessional Competency Framework.

Design

A cross-sectional design was used.

Methods

Third year nursing students (n=105) enrolled in a pediatric theory and clinical completed surveys including: Demographic items, the revised Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) and the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Competency Self-Assessment (IPEC) (Version 3). Students completed reflective questions about their IPE experiences. Descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, confidence intervals, and point estimates were used to measure the differences from pre- to post-participation for all items of the ICCAS and IPEC.

Results

Participants reported improved IPC competence on every item and overall, after the IPE activities. Participants from urban campuses had lower ICCAS scores (PE 0.38, 95 % CI, 0.12–0.65) than those from rural campuses (PE 0.45 95 % CI, 0.18–0.72). Students who identified as men had higher team functioning scores before participating in the IPE activities than women (PE 0.50; 95 % CI,: 0.05–0.95). The IPEC Interaction items mean score was 4.03 ±.50 and IPE values items were higher with a mean of 4.62 ± 0.46.

Conclusions

The findings can guide development and implementation of IPE experiences for nursing and allied healthcare students.