Impact of an interprofessional training on students’ attitudes toward interprofessional education

In Lausanne, Switzerland, Interprofessional Education (IPE) is embedded in the curriculum of every undergraduate healthcare student. Since 2011, five educational and healthcare institutions have implemented a short interprofessional education course to bring together 2307 undergraduates from six different disciplines (medicine, midwifery, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, medical radiology technician) between 2017 and 2020. This pre-post study aimed to explore how this course influenced students' attitudes toward IPE using a French translation of the validated questionnaire called the "University West of England Interprofessional Questionnaire." Students were asked to complete an online survey prior to and at the end of the IPE course to measure students' attitudes toward interprofessional (IP) relationships and collaborative learning. A total of 942 students answered the survey between 2017 and 2020, before and after the course. Each year, students' attitudes toward IP relationships improved after the course whereas a positive change in students' attitudes toward IP learning was observed only in 2020. A short exposure to an IPE course could improve students' attitudes toward IPE and, more specifically, toward IP relationships. Our findings could inform IP leaders to design repetitive, various, and longitudinal IPE experiences to balance the development of uniprofessional and interprofessional identity.