The effect of interprofessional education on healthcare providers' intentions to engage in interprofessional shared decision-making: Perspectives from the theory of planned behaviour

Aims and objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the effects of interprofessional education on healthcare providers' intentions to engage in an interprofessional shared decision-making (IP-SDM) process at emergency department and exploring the affecting factors on their intentions. Methods: We conducted the study through a sequential explanatory mixed method (quantitative-qualitative) design. All ED residents and nurses from two university hospitals were invited and assigned to the intervention and control groups. The intervention group was exposed to case-based learning sessions conducted by applying interprofessional strategies. The intentions of the participants engaged in IP-SDM were assessed before and 2 weeks after the intervention by a questionnaire designed based on the theory of planned behaviour. The questionnaire scores were compared between the intervention and control groups using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Partial eta-squared (η2) was used for effect size calculations in ANCOVA. Subsequently, to explore the affecting factors in engagement in IP-SDM, qualitative data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews. The inductive content analysis approach by Elo and Kyngas was employed to analyze the qualitative data. Results: Out of 117 potentially eligible healthcare professionals, 113 completed the study in the intervention (n = 55) and control (n = 58) groups. The results showed that the difference between the mean scores of the learners in the intervention (1.41 ± 0.27) and control (0.80 ± 0.52) groups was statistically significant (P-value =.00001). The main effect of the intervention and a large educational effect size for the intervention were found to be statistically significant F (1, 11) = 180.54, P-value =.00001, η2 = 0.62. The qualitative data analysis showed two main categories of �team-based facilitators� and �contextual challenges� as the main affecting factors in the engagement of participant in IP-SDM. Conclusion: Our findings suggested that applying interprofessional education strategies could improve the learners' intention to engage in IP-SDM. Moreover, the results showed that the interprofessional collaboration among team members, adherence to the team-based care principles, and administrative support at different levels could be the influential factors the intentions of the participants to engage in IP-SDM. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd