Impact of the first interprofessional education undergraduate program in Spain

Abstract

In 2015, the Universidad Europea de Madrid started the first interprofessional education program in Spain. Nursing students undergo different interprofessional education activities in all 4 academic years, covering various aspects of the following 3 competencies: interprofessional communication, role clarification (definition, interaction and defense), and authority models and decision making. In second year, they integrate these activities with students from psychology, pharmacy and medicine. We assessed the self-perception of second year nursing students with an adapted and validated IPEC questionnaire, in four different transversal moments of the academic year 2015-16. Differences in mean values were analyzed with the Kruskal-Wallis test and post-hoc Mann-Whitney tests with Bonferroni corrections in case of statistical significance. Results showed that this IPE program improves the self-perception second year students have about their competence in interprofessional communication, especially in the dimensions of oral expression, active listening, communication tools and interprofessional conflict resolution.