Evaluating a Forum-Style Simulation for Enhancing Interprofessional Attitudes on Collaboration Among Health Profession Students

Abstract

Context: The Institute of Medicine identified poor communication and collaboration as barriers to high-quality patient care and recommended incorporating interprofessional education into training. One approach is forum-style interprofessional simulation-based education (ISBE), an interactive, improvisational technique that encourages reflection. Objectives: This project aimed to evaluate the impact of classroom-based, forum-style ISBE on university students’ attitudes toward collaboration. Evidence Acquisition: Participants (n = 38) from nursing, dietetics, and speech-language pathology (SLP) programs completed the Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Collaboration (JeffSATIC) before and after the simulation. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the JeffSATIC pretest and posttest scores. Results: The median JeffSATIC posttest score of 120 was significantly higher than the pretest median score of 112 following the forum-style ISBE (W = 177, P = 0.008, rrb = 0.498). Conclusions: Forum-style ISBE can be an effective classroom tool for improving collaboration and communication among nursing, dietetics, and SLP students and may strengthen future working relationships among healthcare professionals.