The impact of an online intervention on the medical, dental and health sciences students about interprofessional education; a quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional education (IPE) encompasses integration, communication, mutual trust and shared decision-making with a common goal of improved patient care and safety. Despite its crucial role, IPE has not gained its anticipated popularity. This study aims to determine the impact of an online educational intervention about IPE on medical, dental and health sciences students in the University of Sharjah (UoS). METHODS: This quasi-experimental research was conducted in three phases; a pre-intervention phase where the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) inventory was administered online to the medical, dental and health sciences students of UoS; an intervention phase where an online workshop was organized via Microsoft Teams®; and a post-intervention phase where RIPLS was used to gather the students’ attitudes towards IPE. The independent t test was used to compare the responses between genders and junior and senior students. A paired sample t test was used to determine the impact of the intervention on the students’ understandings and attitudes about IPE. RESULTS: Out of 800 invited students, 530 students responded to the pre-intervention RIPLS survey. A comparison of the pre-post intervention for the RIPLS subscales of teamwork and collaboration, professional identification, and professional roles showed a significant improvement of students’ attitudes with p-values 0.03, 0.00 and 0.00, respectively. All workshop moderators scored a median of 4 or 5 to the essential elements of IPE during intervention except for a median of 3 for group dynamics. CONCLUSION: The present data, derived from the application of a brief online educational intervention, underpins the readiness and positive attitudes of undergraduate medical students towards IPE. The positive impact of online intervention necessitates the development of a structured and unified IPE curriculum to enhance the receptiveness and application of IPE in the medical field. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-021-02900-8.