Interprofessional behavioural counselling; an essential skill for our undergraduate students

INTRODUCTION Collaborative healthcare practices have positive impacts on dietary and physical activity behaviours (Patnode, et al., 2022). An immersive interprofessional work-integrated learning experience was developed for UOW Exercise Science and Rehabilitation(ExSc), and Dietetics and Nutrition(DNut) students, to appropriately prepare novice practitioners for significant growth in workforce interprofessional collaboration opportunities. METHOD Undergraduate(ExSc:n=47;DNut:n=48) students participated in an Interprofessional Education Workshop(IEW) aimed at improving understanding of interprofessionalism and behaviour counselling techniques. Students then formed into 46 pairs(ExSc:n=1+DNut:n=1) with each pair providing Interprofessional Behavioural Counselling(IBC) to a community client at two separate timepoints; Initial consultation and a 2-week Follow Up(FU). Student volunteers(n=38;ExSc:n=10,DNut:n=28) agreed to participate in the research phase, completing two surveys, Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Scale(ICCAS) & Students Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education Revised(SPICE-R2) at two timepoints; immediately post IEW, and post FU. Additionally, volunteers(n=14;ExSc:n=3,DNut:n=11) participated in focus groupsfollowing IBC. Significance, set at (p<0.01) with mean score differences, and relative change (%) reported. RESULTS Participant responses(n=31) to ICCAS showed improvement across the five key areas of interprofessional practice; communication(0.8,23%), collaboration(1.1,32%), role and responsibilities(1.1, 33%), patient-centred care(1.2,36%), conflict-management and team-functioning(1.1,30%). Similarly, improvements in SPICE-R2 for patient outcomes(0.30,7%) and roles and responsibilities with collaborative-practice(0.67,17%), but not (p=0.06) for interprofessional teamwork and team-based practice. Focus groups indicated that students were confused pre-IBC about effective collaboration, specifically apprehension relating to perceived time constraints involved in having two professionals in one consultation. Conversely, post-IBC student’s reported increased confidence in adopting a collaborative approach, better understanding of scope of practice overlap and could see value in client outcomes following an interprofessional approach. CONCLUSION UOW will continue to embed interprofessional work integrated learning experiences in the future to improve understanding of collegial collaboration ensuring patient-centred care and best practice.