# Effectiveness of interprofessional education enhanced by live consultation observations for healthcare students and new professionals in Singapore: a retrospective cross-sectional study

## TL;DR

This study found that adding live consultation observations to interprofessional education improves learning outcomes for healthcare students and professionals in Singapore.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that live consultation observations enhance the effectiveness of interprofessional education in healthcare training.

## Key findings

- Sessions with live consultations were 1.68 times more likely to achieve perfect evaluation scores.
- Nursing/care coordinators and allied health professionals were more likely to give perfect scores than medical professionals.
- Healthcare professionals were more likely to give perfect scores than students, suggesting better perceived effectiveness.

## Abstract

This study aims to evaluate whether incorporating live consultation observations into interprofessional education (IPE) improves learning evaluation scores among healthcare professionals and students. A retrospective cross-sectional analysis was conducted using evaluation data from AHP IPE sessions held from January 2020 to December 2023 across 7 primary care clinics in Singapore. Evaluation scores were compared between sessions with facilitated discussions only (n=667) and sessions with additional live consultation observations (n=501). Logistic regression was used to analyze factors associated with perfect evaluation scores. Sessions that included live consultations were significantly more likely to achieve perfect evaluation scores (odds ratio [OR], 1.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27–2.22). Nursing/care coordinator and allied health professions (OR 2.07 and 1.76 respectively) were significantly more likely to give perfect scores compared to medical professions. Healthcare professionals were also more likely to give perfect scores than students (OR, 1.52; 95% CI,1.08–2.14), indicating enhanced perceived effectiveness. These findings support the use of experiential learning strategies to optimize interprofessional training outcomes.