A review of interprofessional education research: Disciplines, authorship practices, research design, and dissemination trends

Purpose

In 2007, the World Health Organization launched the Programme on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice to emphasize the importance of interprofessional education (IPE). Since then, numerous IPE reviews have focused on what has been implemented and evaluated. The purpose of this review was to explore how IPE has been implemented and evaluated in research.

Methods

The following aspects of IPE research were explored: 1) disciplines included; 2) authorship patterns, 3) assessment focus, and 4) dissemination trends. Abstracts were screened before a full text screening, review, data extraction, analysis and audit. Frequency and percentages were reported for categorical data while means and standard deviations were reported for continuous data. Chi-squared analyses examined differences between groups for categorical variables.

Results

Three-hundred and fifty-nine articles met the inclusion criteria. Authors from medical, nursing, and pharmacy schools published most frequently, with a majority using quantitative or mixed-methods techniques. Most studies involved a student discipline without an author from that discipline. Most studies also evaluated student perceptions and student knowledge, with few measuring faculty perceptions. Studies were also mostly conducted in classes, simulations, and experiential settings. IPE research was published in 98 journals, most of which were interdisciplinary journals, with the largest increase in publications in the most recent year of the review.

Conclusion

IPE research has grown substantially over the past 10 years. Consideration should be given to expanding IPE research methodologies, strategically publishing IPE findings, and promoting authorship representation for any student discipline involved in IPE.