IPE-COM: a pilot study on interprofessional learning design for medical and midwifery students

The skills of interprofessional teamwork, such as collaboration, team management, and interprofessional communication skills, should be embedded in the early stages of health profession education. In Indonesia, medical doctors and midwives have important roles and often work closely to partnership within the primary health care settings. Therefore, both medical students and midwifery students should have an interprofessional education training together during their professional education, using a community-based learning approach.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of a community-based interprofessional educational learning on collaborative competencies (communication, collaboration, roles and responsibilities, collaborative patient-centered approach, the team functioning, and conflict management).

Pre-experimental study with one group pre- and post-test design in 15 medical students and 19 midwifery students were involved in the community-based IPE (IPE-COM) course, later divided into nine groups. Data were collected by direct observations of supervisors using Interprofessional Collaborator Assessment Rubric (ICAR) instrument.

The finding showed significant increase in IPE competencies before and after the 4-week course. IPE community-based learning had the strongest effect on the team's functioning competence, while collaborative patient-centered approach competence had a moderate effect.

IPE community-based learning had positive impact with increasing collaborative competencies for both medical and midwifery students.