7 115 Discussion Incorporating diverse disciplines would have transformed the dynamic from a 'duo' into a more representative 'team,' fostering a more holistic approach to collaboration. Moreover, this inclusion would emphasize the multifaceted nature of healthcare by demonstrating the diverse perspectives each profession contributes. This, in turn, could empower students to actively highlight these perspectives and appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of creating effective treatment plans. Nevertheless, the two professional groups that were involved in the intervention of this dissertation are most common in IPE interventions and they often work together in clinical practice. With only medical and nursing students it was possible to establish most aspects of ‘interprofessional collaboration’ and we chose for these two groups as it was feasible to organize. The small sample size is a limitation in this thesis. This was partly caused by a low response at our second and third measuring points, which influenced the results in Chapters 5 and 6. Although there were some significant results, a small sample size can limit the validity and reliability of the findings. With fewer participants, the results are more susceptible to random variations and may not accurately represent the broader population. This can lead to biased outcomes and reduce the generalizability of the conclusions. Additionally, true effects can be overlooked. Consequently, interpreting the results from this thesis must be done while keeping the context in mind. The low response rate in this thesis also caused a difference in the proportion of nursing students between the UPE and IPE-groups. Some of the effects we aimed for were difficult to measure or distorted by the different proportions of nursing and medical students in the intervention and control group. For example, in Chapter 5 there were no significant changes found in the interest in treating older adults, but the interest of nursing students was higher than the interest of medical students. The nursing students were significantly over-represented in the intervention group compared to the control group, so the results are probably influenced by this imbalance. The differences between nursing and medical students must be taken into account in future research about interest in geriatrics. A larger sample size could buffer an imbalance in the groups that are compared. Another way to ensure a higher response rate and a better balance between the two groups of students, is to hand out the questionnaires in person, instead of by email, in the classroom setting. Because of high pre-intervention scores, we found ceiling effects in two of the chapters in this thesis. The pre-score of interest in working with older adults as well as the pre-intervention score of motivation for interprofessional collaboration were relatively high in the intervention group. These high scores were probably partly caused by the high scores of nursing students and this profession being overrepresented in the intervention group. This ceiling effect can impact the findings
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