Implementing interprofessional education in the nursing and pharmacy curricula: An evaluation of a workshop focused on optimising of medicines prescribed for mental health problems

Background: An inter-professional education (IPE) workshop centred around mental health scenarios was attended and assessed by 70 Nursing and Pharmacy students at the University of Huddersfield. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of a curricula IPE workshop for undergraduate nursing and pharmacy students, focussing on the optimal use of medicines with mental health problems utilising clinically based scenarios. Methods: The workshop was evaluated using an internally produced cross-sectional questionnaire completed by student participants from both pharmacy and mental health nursing disciplines, scoring on Process/Knowledge and Relationships domains. Results: 70 participants (41 Mental Health Nursing students; 29 Pharmacy students) completed the questionnaire, who rated the content highly. Scores indicative of positive perception were reported by 65 respondents (92.9 %) on the Process/Knowledge domain and by 66 respondents (94.3 %) on the Relationships domain. Qualitative analysis of student evaluations demonstrated that both cohorts highly valued the workshop, with a shared appreciation of what each student group contributed. There was strong overall positivity toward working inter-professionally. Conclusion: IPE workshops act as a useful tool for promoting positive working relationships and collaboration to aid the effective sharing of knowledge and skills between differing professions.