What Are Students Actually Saying? Learner Expectations for Interprofessional Education in Health Professions Training: A Preliminary Review

Background: A core belief of intervention (in this case, IPE interventions) is the importance of meeting students where they are; in order to do so, we have to know where they are. The aim of this study is to reveal the expectations for IPE during pre-professional education and training from the perspectives of five different health profession programs prior to the first IPE class.

Design: Qualitative, thematic study of student responses to a reflection prompt within their first, pre-IPE-class, online module assignment. Students responded to the following prompts after gaining foundational knowledge on IPE, IPCP, and the IPEC Core Competencies as well as the concept of collective competence versus individual competence: 1) Describe, in your own words, the purpose of IPE as a component of your education and training, 2) Describe your key takeaways from the Lingard lecture video on Collective Competence, and 3) Describe what you think IPE should include in order to prepare you for your career. Using an inductive, qualitative approach, the investigating team worked to identify student cognitions regarding IPE.

Results: Thematic analysis revealed various themes of responses for each prompt. The results are presented accordingly, with prominent quotes as examples from each school/program.

Conclusion: Students want and expect IPE to be a part of their health profession education and training for specific reasons. By asking them directly, we gain insight into what they value as students working towards a career in health science.

Implications: As an IPE department, we use every response/submission of feedback towards process improvement. When students feel influential over their education, they take ownership of their learning. Reading these responses and utilizing them to build/improve curriculum is a goal of ours annually and is shown through our longitudinal data to improve student agreement towards the IPE program.