Assessing students’ and health professionals’ competency learning from interprofessional education collaborative workshops

Interprofessional education (IPE) is a key element in preparing current and future health professionals to function in a collaborative practice-ready workforce. California State University, Fresno’s College of Health and Human Services and Valley Children’s Healthcare have partnered together to create an IPE collaborative that organizes and provides interagency-sponsored workshops that align learning objectives of relevant healthcare topics with 2016 IPEC core competencies for university students and health professionals. Using a pre/post design with the IPEC Competency Self-Assessment Tool, two cross-sectional studies were conducted to measure whether interprofessional learning of core competencies improved after participation in IPE workshops, and if such improvements were different between students and health professionals. In Study 1, 67 participants attended a Pediatric Head Injury IPE workshop. Of these, 19 students and 22 health professionals consented to participate and complete the IPEC survey. In Study 2, 99 participants attended an Error Disclosure IPE workshop. Of these, 26 students and 29 health professionals consented to participate and complete the IPEC survey. This investigation showed that the IPEC Competency Self-Assessment Tool discriminated competency ratings between students and health professionals in both studies and demonstrated a positive impact of IPE workshops on students’ and health professionals’ self-assessment of interprofessional competencies.