Effective interprofessional simulation training for medical and midwifery students

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Education
• Medical Training
• Interprofessional Collaboration

Background:

• Effective interprofessional teamworking is crucial for high-quality, safe clinical care.
• Undergraduate interprofessional training aims to improve teamworking, but successful initiatives with assessed educational impact are scarce.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the educational impact of an undergraduate interprofessional training module on medical and midwifery students.
• To evaluate changes in interprofessional attitudes and clinical knowledge following the training.

Main Methods:

• A prospective observational study involving medical and midwifery students at a tertiary maternity unit.
• A training module included lectures, team-building, and simulation-based training for obstetric and generic emergencies.
• Outcome measures: Interprofessional attitudes (UWE Interprofessional Questionnaire) and clinical knowledge (multiple-choice questions).

Main Results:

• Seventy-two students (34 medical, 38 midwifery) participated.
• Significant improvements observed in median interprofessional attitude scores across all domains (p<0.0001).
• Clinical knowledge scores increased significantly for both medical and student midwives (p<0.0001).

Conclusions:

• The interprofessional training module led to meaningful improvements in students' attitudes and knowledge.
• Integrating practical tasks and teamwork in authentic clinical settings facilitates learning interprofessional collaboration.
• This training model is suitable for widespread adoption in undergraduate healthcare education.