Introduction: Interprofessional collaboration is seen as an indispensable
prerequisite for high-quality health services and patient care, especially for
complex diseases such as dementia. Thus, the current project aimed to extend
interprofessional and competency-based education in the field of dementia care
to the previously understudied therapy professions of nutrition, speech-language
pathology, and physiotherapy.
Methods: A three-day workshop was designed to provide specific learning
objectives related to patient-centered dementia care, as well as competences
for interprofessional collaboration. Teaching and learning approaches included
case-based learning in simulated interprofessional case-conferences and peerteaching. A total of 42 students (n = 20 nutrition therapy and counseling, n = 8
speech-language pathology, n = 14 physiotherapy), ranging from first to seventh
semester, finished the whole workshop and were considered in data analysis.
Changes in self-perceived attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration and
education were measured by the German version of the UWE-IP. An in-house
questionnaire was developed to evaluate knowledge and skills in the field of
dementia, dementia management and interprofessional collaboration.
Results: Participation in the workshop led to significant improvements in the total
scores of the UWE-IP-D and the in-house questionnaire, as well as their respective
subscales. Moderate to large effect sizes were achieved. All professions improved
significantly in both questionnaires with large effect sizes. Significant differences
between professions were found in the UWE-IP-D total score between students of
speech-language pathology and physiotherapy in the posttest. Students of nutrition
therapy and counseling revealed a significant lower level of self-perceived knowledge
and skills in the in-house questionnaire pre- and post-testing.
Discussion: The pilot-study confirms the effectiveness of interprofessional
education to promote generic and interprofessional dementia care competencies
and to develop positive attitudes toward interprofessional learning and
collaboration in the therapy professions, thus increasing professional diversity
in interprofessional education research. Differences between professions were
confounded by heterogenous semester numbers and participation conditions.
To achieve a curricular implementation, interprofessional education should
be expanded to include a larger group of participants belonging to different
professions, start early in the study program, and be evaluated over the long term