Effects of student-led drama on nursing students' attitudes to interprofessional working and nursing advocacy: A pre-test post-test educational intervention study

Nursing educators need to equip students to work in interprofessional teams and advocate for patients in increasingly integrated health and social care settings. Drama-based education has been used in nursing to help students understand complex concepts and practices, including communication, empathy, and patient safety. However, few studies have evaluated drama-based education to promote understanding of interprofessional care and advocacy, and none have involved student-led drama where students create dramatic performances to support learning. To examine the effects of student-led drama on student nurses' attitudes to interprofessional working and advocacy. Pre-test post-test educational intervention study. Public university in Scotland. 400 undergraduate student nurses enrolled on a 15-week module focussed on health and social care integration and interprofessional working. Students completed paper questionnaires at the start (n = 274, response rate: 80.1 %) and end (n = 175, 63.9 %) of the module. Outcome measures were the validated Attitudes Towards Healthcare Teams Scale (ATHCTS) and Protective Nursing Advocacy Scale (PNAS). Change in mean ATHCTS and PNAS scores were assessed using paired samples t-tests, with Cohen's d to estimate effect size. ATHCTS scores significantly increased from 3.87 to 4.19 (p