Effects of interprofessional education on readiness for interprofessional learning in prelicensure rehabilitation science students: a systematic review

Early interprofessional education (IPE) facilitates effective interprofessional collaboration (IPC) for high quality patient care, by enhancing students’ knowledge, communication, teamwork and mutual respect. While IPE effectiveness is well explored in medical and nursing students, there is limited information on prelicensure rehabilitation science students. To examine the effect of IPE on rehabilitation science students’ IPE readiness and attitudes toward collaborative learning, confidence, practice efficiency, and team dynamics. This systematic review was informed by the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions for data analysis and synthesis. Structured searches were completed across six databases from January 2016 to March 2024. Studies were included if they reported an IPE intervention including multiple prelicensure health professional students, with at least one student from a rehabilitation discipline. Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies - of Interventions (ROBINS-I) and Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) tools were used to report study biases and evidence quality, respectively. Six studies met inclusion criteria, including 552 students from nine healthcare professions, of which 222 students were from rehabilitation disciplines. Three rehabilitation disciplines were represented across studies: 157 physiotherapy students, 47 occupational therapy students and 18 speech language pathology students. Interventions ranged from single session clinical simulation activities to multi-session interprofessional group projects, using various outcome measures. Overall, students from rehabilitation disciplines had promising changes in their readiness and confidence to engage in IPC. IPE interventions may have positive impacts on the readiness and confidence for IPC in pre-licensure rehabilitation science students. PROSPERO CRD42024506081. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42024506081.