Abstract
Background Interprofessional education helps health sciences students become better able to take part in future interprofessional collaborative practice. In general, interprofessional education activities seek to change knowledge levels, attitudes, and skills. However, a more ambitious objective would be to foster interprofessional socialization. Interprofessional socialization calls for the development of a dual identity: on the one hand, a professional identity, and on the other, an interprofessional identity as a member of a collaborative team. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of an interprofessional activity in increasing self-assessment scores regarding interprofessional socialization. Methods This was a quasi-experimental study. Sixty psychology and nursing students at a university were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group participated in an activity designed in accordance with Khalili's interprofessional socialization framework. The control group performed their usual activities. Self-assessment of interprofessional socialization was measured in both groups using the Interprofessional Socialization and Values Scale (ISVS-21) before and after the activities. After the normality test, the inter-group difference (experimental vs. control groups) in the baseline ISVS score was analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test. The intra-group variation (within each, the experimental group and control group) in the ISVS-21 score (pre-post change) was analyzed using the Wilcoxon test. Results The baseline ISVS-21 score was 93 for the experimental group and 98 for the control group, p=0.321. The experimental group’s ISVS-21 score increased from 93 to 104 after the educational intervention, p<0.01. There were no statistically significant changes in the control group (p=0.174). Conclusions The educational activity, designed in accordance with the Khalili model and carried out with the nursing and psychology students, favors interprofessional socialization in a statistically significant way, as do other activities described in the scientific literature. This matter should be researched in greater depth, using comparative studies to analyze which activities are more effective and efficient.
Increasing interprofessional socialization among psychology and nursing students by means of an educational intervention: A quasi-experimental study with a control group
