Interprofessional Education: Collaborative Activities in Nursing and Therapy Programs

Background: Interprofessional education (IPE) aims to address risks to patient safety and meet the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: Version 3 2023 endorsed in 2024 by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, which include four domains: values/ethics, understanding of roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and a sense of teamwork across professions. Notably, research over the past several years has focused on nursing students learning alongside students in the medical field, physician assistant, and social work, but little research has been done on IPE activities involving various therapies. Objective: To measure the impact of interprofessional educational activities on baccalaureate nursing students' perceptions of their ability to collaborate as a team and effectively communicate with therapy professionals to deliver patient care. Methods: Therapy students and nursing students participated in an Interprofessional Education Day in Spring 2023 and 2024, utilizing simulation strategies to measure the IPEC Core Competencies. The Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Scale (Revised) (ICCAS) was used to quantify students’ perceptions in a retrospective pre-/post-test design. Results: Findings indicated that both nursing students and therapy students found significant value in the IPE activities in reinforcing three of the four IPEC Core Competencies following the Interprofessional Education Day. Conclusion: The research findings indicate the value of interprofessional education among nursing and therapy disciplines, which may encourage other schools of nursing to develop similar activities within their coursework.