Effectiveness of interprofessional education enhanced by live consultation observations for healthcare students and new professionals in Singapore: a retrospective cross-sectional study

This study aims to evaluate whether incorporating live consultation observations into interprofessional education (IPE) improves learning evaluation scores among healthcare professionals and students. A retrospective cross-sectional analysis was conducted using evaluation data from IPE sessions held from January 2020 to December 2023 across 7 primary care clinics in Singapore. Evaluation scores were compared between sessions with facilitated discussions only (n=667) and sessions with additional live consultation observations (n=501). Logistic regression was used to analyze factors associated with perfect evaluation scores. Sessions that included live consultations were significantly more likely to achieve perfect evaluation scores (odds ratio [OR], 1.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27–2.22). Nursing/care coordinators (OR, 2.07) and allied health professionals (OR, 1.76) assigned perfect scores significantly more often than students. The addition of live consultation observations to standard IPE sessions significantly improved evaluation scores, indicating enhanced perceived effectiveness, particularly among experienced professionals. These findings support the use of experiential learning strategies to optimize interprofessional training outcomes.