Undergraduate Interprofessional Education: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.

Abstract

Background Interprofessional education (IPE) is essential for fostering collaboration and communication among health care professionals to improve patient outcomes. Early IPE training for prehealth undergraduate students has been shown to enhance teamwork, dismantle stereotypes, and build self-efficacy in health care settings. Self-efficacy is the belief that one can achieve their goals and succeed at tasks. These outcomes contribute to creating a cohesive and equitable health care environment focused on patient-centered care. Despite evidence supporting the benefits of IPE training, there is a lack of consistent implementation at the undergraduate level across institutions. Objective Programs that have adopted IPE have demonstrated improved student preparedness, better interprofessional collaboration, and enhanced patient care outcomes. Our study addresses this gap in undergraduate IPE among institutions by examining the impact of a structured IPE training program, Pathway to Health Professions, designed for prehealth East Carolina University undergraduate students who are members of Buff in Scrubs, an East Carolina University organization. Methods Our study uses a mixed methods approach, including retrospective surveys and open-ended questions, to assess changes in participants' attitudes, skills, and competencies before and after training. Data will be collected from January 2025 to April 2025. Results We hypothesize that early and structured exposure to IPE training will significantly enhance prehealth undergraduate students' confidence, understanding of interprofessional roles, and ability to collaborate effectively. By focusing on self-efficacy-based skills, we hope to equip prehealth students with the confidence to apply to their desired health professions program. Conclusions This paper outlines the protocol for Pathway to Health Professions, a prehealth preparation IPE program. Future testing of the use of this program is outlined. We hypothesize that the results from the future testing of this program will show an improvement in undergraduate prehealth students' self-efficacy related to graduate school readiness.