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Research Objectives
Teamwork among diverse healthcare professions is characteristic of rehabilitation
medicine. Interprofessional education (IPE) can better prepare medical students to
work with other professionals as they transition to clinical practice. This study
sought to identify effects of IPE experiences on medical student attitudes regarding
work with interdisciplinary healthcare teams.
Design
A longitudinal study using the Interprofessional Attitudes Scale (IPAS) at 5 timepoints
(prior to the first IPE session, and after each subsequent IPE session), throughout
medical school, was conducted to investigate whether medical student perspectives
of other health professions changed throughout the IPE curriculum. Individually paired
T-testing was used to investigate changes in student attitudes throughout IPE training.
Individual Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests analyzed subcategory responses.
Setting
Medical students participated in campus-based IPE workshops, medical home visits with
an interprofessional team, and clinical rotations. All surveys were conducted online.
Participants
Class of 2019 medical student cohort from a single university.
Interventions
N/A.
Main Outcome Measures
IPAS survey scores.
Results
Significance was noted in ‘Teamwork, Roles and Responsibilities’ (p = .0075) between
the pre-MS1 and post-MS2 IPAS surveys. Subcategory analysis showed significant attitude
changes within: ‘Shared learning before graduation will help me become a better team
worker’ (p = 0.0001), ‘Shared learning will help me think positively about other professionals’
(p = 0.0049), ‘Learning with other students will help me become a more effective member
of a health care team’ (p = 0.0016), ‘Shared learning with other health sciences students
will help me communicate better with patients and other professionals’ (p = 0.0020),
and ‘I would welcome the opportunity to work on small-group projects with other health
sciences students’ (p = 0.0001).
Conclusions
IPE curriculum including embedded clinical practice, not solely didactic experiences,
produces meaningful changes in students’ attitudes regarding team-based healthcare.
Rehabilitation medicine requires cooperation among professions, and understanding
of different roles/responsibilities, to optimize clinical outcomes. IPE may help students
understand different roles/responsibilities and effectively prepare for interdisciplinary
patient care.
Author(s) Disclosures
Authors have no conflicts.
Key Words
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© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc.
