READINESS FOR AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERPROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN THE FACULTY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, JAMAICA

C. Gordon¹, H. Silvera¹, T. Jones¹, V. Deslandes¹, A. Garbutt¹, C. Wilson-Clarke¹

¹The University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica

Background: Health care professionals are expected to work as a team to provide best outcomes for patients. Efforts to foster this team work should begin during training. The Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies train 6 groups of health care students. Inter-professional learning (IPL) is limited and the students readiness for and attitude towards IPL has not been examined. This is important in order to plan meaningful interprofessional activities/programmes.

Purpose: The aims of the study were to determine the attitude towards and the readiness for inter-professional learning among health care students in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, and the associated factors.

Methods: A cross-sectional design was used. The study was approved by the Mona Campus Research Ethics Committee(ECP 39, 20/21). One hundred and forty-five students were recruited from the six healthcare programmes in the faculty. Two questionnaires were administered online using Google forms: the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and the Interprofessional Attitude Scale (IPAS). The RIPLS is a 19 item questionnaire where each item is assessed on a 5 point Likert scale. Scores on the questionnaire range from 19-95. Higher scores indicate greater readiness for inter-professional learning. The IPAS is a 27 item scale with each item scored on a Likert scale from 1-5. Data were also collected on age, gender, year of study, funding for tertiary education and parents’ income. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a one-way ANOVA and the t-test. An alpha level of 0.05 was used to determine statistical significance.

Results: The mean age of the sample was 21.64 (2.26) years and 79.3 % was female. Most (49.7%) were from the medical programme, 37% were funded by a combination of sources (parents/scholarships/bursaries), and the majority (59%) reported minimal exposure to IPL. Mean RIPLS score was 79.2 (10.4), and mean IPAS score 118.6(8.93). RIPLS item with the highest (4.80) score was “team work skills are vital for all health care students…” and on the IPAS it was “it is important for health professionals to respect the dignity and privacy of patients…”; 4.95. Overall RIPLS and IPAS scores were not significantly related to any of the variables examined. Scores on the IPAS sub-scale Interprofessional biases were significantly higher in men(p=.003), physical therapy students compared to nursing(p=.003) and those with a lot of exposure to IPL(p=.017).

Conclusions: Overall the healthcare students demonstrated positive attitudes and a good level of readiness for IPL. This was the same regardless of age, gender, programme of study and level of exposure to IPL. The differences by gender, programme and exposure to IPL that emerged in the area of interprofessional biases (p=.003) warrant further investigation.

Implications: Interprofessional Learning should be incorporated to a greater extent in the faculty's healthcare programmes through curricular and related policy changes. This has the potential to improve collaborative practice in the workplace. Further studies, with larger samples should be done to explore other factors that may impact the readiness and attitudes of the students.

Funding acknowledgements: Unfunded

Keywords:
Interprofessional Education
Readiness
Healthcare students

Topics:
Education
Education: methods of teaching & learning

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: The University of the West Indies

Committee: Mona Campus Research Ethics Committee

Ethics number: ECP 39, 20/21