Medical students' ratings of the relevance and actual implementation of interprofessional education and preferences for teaching formats: comparison by gender and prior education

Objectives: Interprofessional education is becoming increasingly important for collaboration in patient care. In the national context, there are few empirical studies on the assessment of medical students as important stakeholders in their education. Method: Students (N=2,974) participated in a semester-wide online evaluation of the modular curriculum of medicine at the Charité Berlin. Socio-demographic data (including gender, completion of prior education/studies), assessments of the relevance and extent of interprofessional collaboration and preferences for interprofessional education in various teaching formats were collected. Results: In total, data from 1,019 students were included in the evaluation. The relevance of interprofessional collaboration was considered high by medical students. Female students rated the relevance higher than male students. The completion of pre-education (vocational training or study) had no additional influence. The actual implementation of interprofessional education was rated equally low by female and male students. Medical students rated patient-centred, interactive small group formats as particularly suitable for interprofessional education. There were no gender differences, but the effect was more pronounced among students with vocational training. Conclusion: The assessments of female and male students show a large difference between the perceived relevance and the actual implementation of interprofessional collaboration in the modular curriculum of medicine. This study provides an empirical basis for the actual implementation of interprofessional collaboration and students’ views on suitable teaching formats for interprofessional education.