What interprofessional education teaching and learning approaches are being implemented in baccalaureate health professional curricula in wound care education? A scoping review.

Aim: This scoping review aimed to explore the interprofessional curriculum content and teaching approaches specific to wound care education in baccalaureate health courses internationally.

Background: Interprofessional education is defined as occurring when future health practitioners learn with, from and about each other with the goal of improving health outcomes. The management of wounds is a global public health issue with the World Health Organization recognising wound care is best managed by an interprofessional team. The preparedness of health professional graduates to engage in interprofessional education is essential to design and deliver coordinated health services that are person-centred and improve health outcomes. There is a lack of evidence however about how to prepare baccalaureate students in an interprofessional context, specifically in wound care.

Design: A scoping review was conducted using the framework of Arksey and O'Malley and reported using the PRISMA checklist for scoping reviews.

Methods: A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted in MEDLINE (via EBSCOhost), CINAHL PLUS (via EBSCOhost), Pubmed and Embase databases published between 2012 and October 2023. Reference lists of included studies were also searched. Studies which were peer reviewed, written in English with a focus on interprofessional education in wound care were included in the review. The process of reviewing titles and abstracts was conducted by two independent reviewers. Data were extracted, key characteristics mapped and a narrative analysis of findings was reported.

Results: Three studies were included in this review. All the reviewed papers reported collaborative learning activities between different health professional groups relating to wound care, although there was no consistent approach to what wound care content was delivered or how it was delivered. Only one study reported that the delivery of content was completed by staff from multiple professional groups. Evaluation of the included studies related to either the effectiveness of the interprofessional education or wound care rather than both concepts.

Conclusions: Due to the limited number of studies included in this review, it was difficult to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of interprofessional approaches to wound care. It may be possible that interprofessional wound care is currently being undertaken but not formally evaluated. This itself is problematic. It is imperative to equip healthcare students with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide safe, effective interprofessional care. Evidence on the effectiveness of educational programs is urgently needed.

Registration Number: to be included in abstract after acceptance.