Behavioural outcomes of interprofessional education within clinical settings for health professional students: A systematic literature review

Interprofessional education facilitates collaborative practice, which promotes high-quality patient care and patient safety. Interprofessional education (IPE) experiences within clinical settings provide an opportunity for the development of interprofessional collaborative practice competence. The aim of this systematic review was to review the literature evaluating interprofessional education for health professional students within clinical settings and summarize the behavioral outcomes. Databases searched were PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Taylor & Francis Online, ERIC and PsycINFO. Full-text articles were independently screened by two reviewers and included if agreed. Outcomes were analyzed using Kirkpatrick’s model modified for IPE. Studies with behavioral change outcomes were analyzed and synthesized using narrative methods. Included studies provided evidence that IPE experiences in clinical settings can enable students to develop and integrate interprofessional collaborative practice competencies, across diverse types of settings. Key tasks enabling students to achieve these learning outcomes included synchronous patient consultations, collaborative development of integrative health-care plans outside of patient consultations, and participation in socialization with health-care teams. There were limitations in the methodological design of the included studies, with limited use of comparator groups and validated tools, high usage of self-report data and serious risk of bias identified across all quantitative included studies. In conclusion, high-quality research designed to measure the construct of behavioral change is lacking. Such research could further investigate the key tasks in IPE experiences in clinical settings that are necessary for students to develop the range of required collaborative practice competencies and integrate these. This could provide clarification regarding if and how this could be achieved across different types of clinical placements.