‘What’s going on?’ The effectiveness of communication in undergraduate inter-professional education: The student experience

Background: Ineffective communication between the health team has been acknowledged as a major cause of errors in health care. Inter-professional education in undergraduate health courses has been promoted as a means to address these issues. This project tested that idea. Methods: The simulation workshop ran over two days with inter-professional student groups who worked to assess and determine patient care in the given scenarios following theoretical preparation and group discussion. The simulation activities were observed by clinical facilitators and audio-visually recorded. Student clinical reasoning and communication were calculated using data from student, patient and facilitator surveys following each scenario. Results: 116 students from five disciplines completed the workshop. Overall the communication findings indicated that students from nursing and exercise sciences were the better communicators despite the higher communication skills self-assessment of students from the medical and medical sciences disciplines. Conclusion: Effective communication is an important tool for patient safety in the provision of health care. Student exposure to a variety of health disciplinary communication experiences via inter-professional education highlights to students the commonalities and differences of disciplinary communication and their responsibilities for communicating effectively with the health team.