Assessing changing student atitudes toward Interprofessional health education

Background/Rational

Chronic illness in the rapidly aging population of the US is an important healthcare concern. As a result of the increase of chronic illness, several health organizations have expressed the need to redesign health care education. One such reorganization is to use a team approach to healthcare education called Interprofessional Health Education (IPHE). IPHE has become a priority for many universities; however, its introduction is seen as problematic because many factors can impede implementation. Further, student attitudes can impact the successful implementation of IPHE. Therefore it is important to determine whether programs have an impact on improving student attitudes towards working in teams.

Methods

700 students in medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, pharmacy and public health were administered two survey instruments, RIPLS and IEPS at the beginning of a year long IPHE experience. This experience was created to address the lack of health care information held by individuals with chronic illness, and it required the interprofessional teams to work with an older individual living in the community with a chronic illness. At the conclusion of the year, the IEPS was again administered to students to determine if there was a change in attitudes towards interprofessional care.

Results

An ANOVA with appropriate post hoc analyses found some significant difference among the professions in attitudes toward IPHE at the conclusion of the experience. A correlation analysis found some significant relationships between readiness and attitudes toward IPHE. This presentation will describe and discuss the differences and its implications.