Relationship of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Experience with Interprofessional Attitudes of Students in Health Professions
Purpose
Interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) has been identified as a model to meet the needs of patients in todayÕs healthcare system. This can be achieved through purposeful interprofessional education among healthcare students from multiple disciplines within a clinical environment, where the delivery of care takes place. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the past participation of students in an IPCP model with interprofessional attitudes of students, as measured by the Interprofessional Attitudes Scale (IPAS). It further sought to examine group differences in IPAS based on discipline, while controlling for IPCP experience.
Methods/Description:
Students from two major public universities in the southwestern US who were involved in an interprofessional education partnership were invited to participate in this survey study. Participants consisted of 170 students from medicine, physical therapy, social work, nursing, and pharmacy. A pearson correlation coefficient examined the association of IPAS scores and IPCP experience for all students as well as those from each discipline. Further, group differences in attitudes as measured by IPAS were conducted via an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), using IPCP experience as a covariate. A post-hoc tukey test was also used to examine pairwise differences in the ANCOVA.
Results/Outcomes:
While there was not a statistically significant association between total IPAS score and IPCP experience for the group as a whole, a statistical significance was found for the subdomain interprofessional bias with a small effect. However, a statistically significant positive relationship existed for total IPAS scores and IPCP experience for medical students (R=0.44; p<.05), but no other discipline. Further, when controlling for IPCP experience, IPAS scores significantly differed between he groups (F=5.87; p<0.001), with medical students possessing significantly lower attitudes as measured by IPAS scores compared to and all other disciplines as identified in the post-hoc tukey test. This trend continued for the subdomains "teamwork" and "community-centeredness."
Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme:
IPCP appears to have an association with interprofessional attitudes among health professional students, especially for medical students. Evidence supports continued focus on interprofessional curricular design using IPCP models. This study suggests some additional focus on teamwork, interprofessional bias, and community-centeredness may be warranted.