Attitudes towards interprofessionalism among midwife students after hybrid-simulation: A prospective cohort study

Background: Team performance, communication and leadership enhance the quality and effectiveness of interprofessional collaborations between midwifery students and anaesthetists in obstetric emergencies. The realistic setting of hybrid simulation provides practice for interprofessional competencies in a stressful environment without putting women at risk during childbirth. Objectives: We investigated how full-scale interprofessional hybrid simulation affects the attitudes towards interprofessionalism of final year midwife students. Design: Two-centre prospective cohort study. Settings: Bern Simulation and CPR Centre of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the Bern University Hospital (Bern, Switzerland) and Zürich University of Applied Sciences. Participants: Final year midwife students from Bern University of Applied Sciences and Zürich University of Applied Sciences, both from the German-speaking Switzerland. Methods: One cohort was exposed to hybrid simulation and the other served as control. The simulation group filled in the German Interprofessional Attitude Scale (G-IPAS) before and after simulation, and then again three months later. The control group filled in two sets of G-IPAS questionnaires three months apart. Results: The total G-IPAS score increased significantly towards a more positive interprofessional attitude directly after the hybrid simulation. This increase was not sustained over the observation period of three months, although the score remained significantly higher than the score of the cohort without simulation. Conclusions: A novel interprofessional hybrid simulation for obstetric emergencies for midwifery students promoted improved attitudes towards interprofessionalism immediately after simulation. These attitudes were improved compared to a control cohort without simulation, and the difference between the two cohorts remained three months after simulation. Future studies might focus on whether improved interprofessional attitudes lead to better healthcare and safety for women and children during childbirth