Interprofessional Dementia Education in Pre-Registration Healthcare Students: A Systematic Review

High-quality dementia care is underpinned by interprofessional collaborative practise, and healthcare training is a critical opportunity to develop these skills. This review aims to examine the evidence for whether interprofessional dementia education for undergraduate healthcare students positively impacts outcomes related to collaborative practise.

Inclusion criteria consisted of papers investigating dementia interprofessional education interventions delivered within undergraduate education and that assessed outcomes relating to interprofessional collaboration. Searches were limited to papers published after 2014 and were conducted in eight databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, ERIC, The Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), British Education Index (BEI). A narrative synthesis was conducted and data quality was assessed.

11 papers, evaluating 11 different interventions, were included in the narrative synthesis. Four studies demonstrated positive changes in student attitudes or perceptions of interprofessional education or collaboration. Seven studies had evidence that students' knowledge or perceived skills about interprofessional collaboration increased. No evidence was presented for change in student behaviour, or impact on patients or organisational practise. Three studies presented findings on outcomes specifically relating to interprofessional dementia care.

The findings suggest that dementia interprofessional education may contribute to interprofessional competencies. Therefore, interprofessional education could provide added value to dementia education, both of which are high priorities in the undergraduate curriculum. However, the strength of the evidence was weak as the methodological quality of the papers was low. Additionally, interventions were varied and therefore, optimal components of dementia interprofessional education were not identified. More rigorous investigation is needed on the impact of dementia interprofessional education with a focus on the longer-term impact on student practise and service delivery.