Evaluating the impact of a blended interprofessional education course on students' attitudes towards interprofessional education: a pre-post study

Background Since 2011, five educational and healthcare institutions have implemented a short interprofessional education (IPE) course to bring together undergraduates from five disciplines. To meet the logistical challenges of IPE implementation, more specifically, the large number of classrooms needed to gather students together and the need for human resources to guide learning activities, a face-to-face IPE course was redesigned into a blended (online and face-to-face collaborative learning activities) IPE course. In March 2023, 183 medical, 378 nursing, 46 radiologic technology, 69 physiotherapy, and 74 occupational therapy students participated in a one-day IPE blended course to learn interprofessional team functioning and dynamics, role clarification and responsibilities of other professions, and interprofessional communication skills. This study aimed to assess students' changes in attitudes towards IPE after being involved in a large-scale interprofessional blended learning course. Methods A before-after study was conducted using a French translation of the validated questionnaire "University of West of England Interprofessional Questionnaire" (UWE-IP questionnaire). Students' attitudes towards interprofessional (IP) relationships and IP learning were measured before and after the course. In March 2023, two hundred fifty-six students from five professions answered two subscales of the UWE-IP questionnaire before and after the course (response rate 34%). Results Students' attitudes towards IP relationships improved significantly after the course. The score on this subscale (min 8; max 24) changed from 11.18 (SD 2,67) before the course to 10,38 (SD 2,55) after the course, indicating a significant improvement in attitudes towards IP relationships (p < 0,001). More specifically, students had more positive attitudes on the item "I have a good understanding of the roles of different health and social care professionals." and the item "I feel that I am respected by people from other health and social care disciplines." after the course. A positive change in students' attitudes towards IP learning was observed, but the results were not significative. Conclusion A face-to-face IPE course redesigned as a blended course helped overcome existing challenges to implementing an IPE course. The results suggest a blended IPE course improves students' attitudes towards interprofessionality.