Interprofessional service learning experiences among health professional students: A systematic search and review of learning outcomes

Abstract

Abstract Interprofessional education and service learning offer inviting learning contexts for students from diverse professions to engage in learning about and improving communities. Given the growth of Interprofessional education (IPE) and its link to service learning, there is a need to establish where and how service-learning based IPE is effective. Using PRISMA guidelines, we systematically searched, identified, screened and assessed the eligibility of peer-reviewed publications from multiple bibliographic databases covering medical, education (general and medical), psychology, and social-behavioral science literature. This systematic review elicited 49 articles published since 1996, key characteristics of which are described in this paper. The findings provide evidence that a majority of Interprofessional service-learning experiences have been elective in nature, provide access to diverse populations and constitute unique learning experiences. Publications most frequently described medicine, nursing, and pharmacy participants. Substantive barriers to the development and implementation of service learning experiences include institutional support, extramural funding, and diverse programmatic requirements. Importantly, we concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to render a conclusion about the efficacy of service learning within an interprofessional context. The analysis noted multiple limitations with the existing body of research: namely, limited application of educational theory, a lack of rigor in evaluative methodology and little alignment with established interprofessional competencies.