Exploring the benefits of a short practical teaching unit for interprofessional communication and attitudes - Results from an assessment of third-year medical student cohorts

Background Interprofessional (IP) communication and interaction play a central role in high-quality patient care. Numerous studies have shown that communication errors between different healthcare professions frequently cause treatment errors and poor patient care, simultaneously increasing costs in the healthcare system. To address these deficits, we implemented a curricular teaching unit (TU) for interprofessional communication and role clarity in third-year medical students (MS), emergency paramedic students (EPS) and nursing students (NuS). We asked ourselves whether our IP TU leads to a measurable improvement in students’ IP communicative skills and their attitudes towards other healthcare professions and whether their attitudes and skills correlate with each other. Methods We measured the outcomes of the IP TU for our MS (n=172) with an IP OSCE. The previous cohort of MS (n=168) served as control group. Changes in attitudes towards other health professions were observed before and after TU and OSCE via the UWE-IP questionnaire. Data analysis was performed with SPSS 29.0. Results The MS of the intervention group significantly improved in the following categories of the IP OSCE: general communication (74.9±24.7 vs 88.5±15.7%, p<0.001), handover (59.7±25.6 vs 68.6±24%, p<0.001) and total points (69.6±17.5 vs 77.6±15.8%, p<0.001). There was also a significant improvement in attitudes in the UWE-IP categories IP relationships (IR: 14.4±3.5, n=46 vs 12.4±3.5 points (P), n=117, p<0.05), IP interactions (31.9±4.1, n=47 vs 28.5±4.7 P, n=119, p<0.001) and Communication and Teamwork (CT: 21.5±3.4, n=49 vs 19.4±3.9 P, n=131, p<0.001). The generally negative initial perception of observed IP interactions was even more pronounced in the EPS (MS 31.9±4.1, n=47 vs EP 34.1±4.2 P, n=21, p<0.05). The OSCE IP performance correlated independently of the TU with a more positive attitude towards IR and a positive self-assessment of their own CT (IR: r=-0.15, p<0.05, n=232; CT: r=-0.17, p<0.05, n=243). Conclusion A short IP teaching unit leads to an improvement in IP performance and attitudes, even in a mandatory heterogeneous setting. MS with a positive attitude towards IP topics score better at the OSCE IP station. The view of the students on IP interactions is alerting, emphasising the need for a longitudinal concept in IPE.