Learning from interprofessional education: A cautionary tale

Background: Interprofessional education (IPE) is time consuming to develop and sustain and presents many logistical and practical challenges to curriculum developers. Drawing on findings from an evaluation study of an IPE pilot, this paper brings new insights into both positive implications and potentially negative consequences of delivering large scale IPE. Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate a large scale IPE pilot delivered to students in the first year of their training. Design and Setting: The IPE pilot took place on campus and was focused on patient safety (human factors). Participants: The study involved 630 first year undergraduates across 10 programmes at a UK university. Methods: A mixed methods evaluation was conducted comprising a paper-based survey circulated at the end of the taught session followed by uni-professional focus groups (n = 4). Questionnaire data was subject to descriptive statistical analysis and key themes were generated from the focus group data. Results: Three overarching themes emerged from analysis of the qualitative data: Understanding differences in roles, Learning about stereotypes and Unintended perpetuation of stereotypes. Conclusions: IPE is an important part of the training of all health and social care professionals and the study revealed many benefits of this approach. However, we should be sensitive to the possibility of inadvertently perpetuating negative stereotypes as a consequence of IPE activities. Our work highlights the need for caution when considering the planning and executing IPE activities.