Interprofessional training enhances collaboration between nursing and medical students: A pilot study

•Conducting preoperative geriatric assessments in nurse/physician pairs offered a unique collaborative educational experience.•Medical and nursing students improved post-test geriatric knowledge scores after practicing skills on standardized patients.•Learning geriatric assessment skills with an interprofessional focus prepared students to collaboratively assess patients.

BackgroundEffective collaboration among healthcare providers is an essential component of high-quality patient care. Interprofessional education is foundational to ensuring that students are prepared to engage in optimal collaboration once they enter clinical practice particularly in the care of complex geriatric patients undergoing surgery.Study DesignTo enhance interprofessional education between nursing students and medical students in a clinical environment, we modeled the desired behavior and skills needed for interprofessional preoperative geriatric assessment for students, then provided an opportunity for students to practice skills in nurse/physician pairs on standardized patients. This experience culminated with students performing skills independently in a clinic setting.ResultsNine nursing students and six medical students completed the pilot project. At baseline and after the final clinic visit we administered a ten question geriatric assessment test. Post-test scores (M = 90.33, SD = 11.09) were significantly higher than pre-test scores (M = 72.33, SD = 12.66, t(14) = − 4.50, p < 0.001. Nursing student post-test scores improved a mean of 22.0 points and medical students a mean of 11.7 points over pre-test scores.Analysis of observational notes provided evidence of interprofessional education skills in the themes of shared problem solving, conflict resolution, recognition of patient needs, shared decision making, knowledge and development of one's professional role, communication, transfer of interprofessional learning, and identification of learning needs.ConclusionsHaving nursing and medical students “learn about, from and with each other” while conducting a preoperative geriatric assessment offered a unique collaborative educational experience for students that better prepares them to integrate into interdisciplinary clinic teams.