Measuring the Long-term Impact of a High-fidelity Interprofessional Education Simulation Experience in Medical Students
There is a gap in the academic literature evaluating the long-term impacts of student outcomes post-engagement in high fidelity simulation interprofessional education (IPE) experiences. The authors sought to investigate student perceptions of interprofessional skills after engagement in a simulation experience during the 2018-19 academic year and post-engagement in similarly focused simulation experience one year later. The research question investigated was "do 3rd-year medical students retain their perceptions of interprofessional skills after a high-fidelity simulation post 1 year."
During the 2018-19 academic year, 3rd-year medical students engaged in a high-fidelity simulation IPE experience with undergraduate nursing students focused on Basic Life Support. Students voluntarily completed an electronic survey post-engagement in the learning activity. The survey included the Communication and Roles and Responsibilities subscales from the Interprofessional Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey (ICCAS). During the 2019-20 academic year, the now 4th-year medical students engaged in an Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support high-fidelity simulation IPE experience with nurse anesthesia students, which also included a focus on interprofessional communication and roles. Students voluntarily engaged in an electronic survey that included the same ICCAS questions as the previous academic year.
Analysis of the data showed a significant decline in means from 3rd-year post-questions to 4th-year pre-questions, p-value < 0.05. The analysis was carried out using the non-parametric test of means, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. These results indicate that students did not retain the same confidence in interprofessional skills from 3rd-year post-questions to 4th-year pre-questions.
The implications from this research show that a single annual IPE activity may not be sufficient to support the students in building confidence in their collaborative skills without regression. IPE activities should be provided more often to students to prevent regression and support improvement in their interprofessional skills so that they are more prepared to collaborate post-graduation.
