Nursing students' perceived ability to practice interprofessional collaboration after the inclusion of virtual and immersion interprofessional education activities: A quantitative exploration.

Background: Little is known about the influence of interprofessional education (IPE) on interprofessional collaboration (IPC), particularly following the COVID 19 pandemic.
Aim: To examine nursing students' perceived ability to practice IPC after exposure to virtual lectures and immersive clinical IPE activities founded on the competencies from the National Interprofessional Competency Framework.
Design: A cross-sectional design was used.
Methods: Third year nursing students (n=105) enrolled in a pediatric theory and clinical completed surveys including: Demographic items, the revised Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) and the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Competency Self-Assessment (IPEC) (Version 3). Students completed reflective questions about their IPE experiences. Descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, confidence intervals, and point estimates were used to measure the differences from pre- to post-participation for all items of the ICCAS and IPEC.
Results: Participants reported improved IPC competence on every item and overall, after the IPE activities. Participants from urban campuses had lower ICCAS scores (PE 0.38, 95 % CI, 0.12-0.65) than those from rural campuses (PE 0.45 95 % CI, 0.18-0.72). Students who identified as men had higher team functioning scores before participating in the IPE activities than women (PE 0.50; 95 % CI,: 0.05-0.95). The IPEC Interaction items mean score was 4.03 ±.50 and IPE values items were higher with a mean of 4.62 ± 0.46.
Conclusions: The findings can guide development and implementation of IPE experiences for nursing and allied healthcare students.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest I have nothing to declare.
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