ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The interaction among various health disciplines in a health care team using the IPE approach has received recognition as one of the most effective methods of improving the delivery of healthcare services. The perception and attitude of students toward IPE is considered one of the barriers and challenges to implement interprofessional education. PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to evaluate students’ perceptions toward interprofessional education. METHOD: Data were collected through a descriptive survey using the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS). The survey consisted of 19 items, 5-point Likert scale and grouped into four sub-scales; teamwork and collaboration, negative professional identity, positive professional identity, and roles and responsibilities. The survey was administered to a convenience sample of undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled in nursing, respiratory therapy, nutrition, physical therapy, and occupational therapy programs at an urban university. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: The number of participants was two hundred and fifty (n= 250) students from five programs. Physical therapy students accounted for 29.2%; followed by nursing students 28.8%; respiratory therapy students 26.4%; nutrition students 8.4%; and occupational therapy students 7.2%. Female participants accounted for 71.6% of all participants while male participants accounted for 28.4%. Over half of the participants are graduate degree students while 44.4% are undergraduate degree students. Almost one third of participants reported previous IPE experience and two third of participants reported no previous IPE experience. The study findings revealed that participants have positive perception and more agreement toward IPE (M = 81.10, ± 8.16 out of 95 points). The study showed that there is insignificant correlation between age and RIPLS total scores, negative professional identity, positive professional identity, and roles & responsibilities. There is only a significant negative correlation (rs = -0.176; P = 0.008) between students’ age and teamwork & collaboration subscale. Moreover, the study findings revealed that gender and previous IPE experience have no significant effect on students’ perception toward IPE. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that healthcare professional students value interprofessional education and have good perception toward it. Further studies with higher number of participants from various disciplines and level of education are recommended.

Class of 2010 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of interprofessional education on the perceptions and attitudes of pharmacy students. METHODS: A remodeled version of the Interdisciplinary Education Perceptions Scale (IEPS) was administered during a regular class time for first, second, and third year students. This adapted IEPS was designed and validated to assess three aspects of interprofessional perceptions: competency and autonomy (sub-scale 1), perceived need for cooperation (sub-scale 2), and perception of actual cooperation (sub-scale 3). Data regarding sex, age, previous health care work experience, and previous degree achievement were also collected. RESULTS: A total of 211 pharmacy students completed the survey (73 first-years, 85 second-years, and 53 third-years). Analysis of variants (one-way ANOVA) was used to analyze the potential difference in perceptions between the three groups of pharmacy students using both the total and sub-scale scores. No statistically significant difference was found between total scores, sub-scale 1, sub-scale 2, or sub-scale 3 with regard to pharmacy school year. There was also no significant difference in perceptions with regard to sex, age, work experience, or degree status for any scale scoring. CONCLUSIONS: Perceptions of interprofessional education did not differ between first-, second-, and third-year pharmacy students at the University of Arizona, College of Pharmacy.

Class of 2010 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To examine the potential differences in attitudes between the colleges of pharmacy, nursing, medicine, and social work relating to the “Culture and Communication” IPE activity at the University of Arizona in 2007. METHODS: This was a retrospective study comparing the opinions and attitudes of different groups of healthcare students concerning the IPE activity “Culture and Communication” at the University of Arizona. The independent variable in this study was academic discipline: medicine, pharmacy, nursing, law, or social work. The dependent variables were the attitudes and opinions of the effectiveness of this IPE activity on Culture and Communication. RESULTS: A total of 589 questionnaires (medicine=119, pharmacy=89, nursing=77, social work=21) were completed and included in 2007. Overall, students felt the Culture and Communication IPE activity improved their knowledge of how to identify barriers to communication and reduce the likelihood of miscommunication with other healthcare professionals. The percent of students who believed they had a very high understanding of the barriers to effective communication among health care providers increased from 11.3% before the IPE activity to 34.5% after. The percent of students who believed they had a very high knowledge of how to reduce the likelihood of miscommunication increased from 6.6% before the IPE activity to 37.4% after. There were differences between the groups relating to the different questions that the questionnaire focused on. CONCLUSIONS: There were significant differences between the various healthcare professionals relating to the usefulness and effectiveness of the Culture and Communication IPE activities at the University of Arizona. Overall, students seemed to benefit from and enjoy the IPE activity and would recommend having future students participate in the activities. The majority of students felt the Culture and Communication IPE activity was benificial and allowed for the improvement of relationships and attitudes between the health care professions. There were similar responses between the medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work students.

There is a widespread emphasis in healthcare delivery on the need for interprofessional collaborative care in order to enhance quality and safety in patient care. Interprofessional learning about collaboration, problem solving and decision-making beyond the confines of individual professions is important for practicing health professionals. As attitude has been found to predict behaviour, a positive attitude by health professionals toward interprofessional teams could positively affect interprofessional team functioning, and subsequently the quality of care provided to the patient. The purpose of this study was to determine whether an interprofessional learning experience would improve attitudes toward interprofessional teams using the Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale. Healthcare professionals attending a new employee orientation completed the Attitudes Towards Health Care Teams (ATHCT) scale before and after an interprofessional education intervention. Results revealed a statistically significant increase in ATHCT scale mean score following the interprofessional education intervention. Findings from this study suggest that interprofessional learning can be an effective means to increase attitudes toward interprofessional teams and potentially contribute to improving interprofessional collaboration in healthcare. / October 2016

Background: Interprofessional Education (IPE) can improve teamwork among future healthcare professionals, but the academic structural environment can be a barrier to its implementation. Methods and Results: Students from seven professional programs (athletic training. exercise science, nursing, nutrition, public health, social work, and speech-language pathology) participated in a two-part IPE program consisting of: a web-based education module and an in-person interactive workshop. Students were administered a deidentified pre/post survey to assess changes in their knowledge and attitudes toward IPE. A total of 54 students participated in both components with 46 students completing both surveys. After participating in the IPE program, significantly more students reported changes in 10 of the 18 items on the survey, particularly differentiating the roles of each profession and the benefits of interprofessional collaboration in their future careers. Conclusion: This program increased students’ understanding of the roles of different health professions. Implementing an IPE program is beneficial for enhancing student knowledge and changing attitudes toward IPE.

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: To determine the attitudes of medical students towards pharmacists and the roles they play on the healthcare team and how these views change after attending an inter-professional workshop with other University of Arizona healthcare students. Methods: Questionnaires administered during a regularly scheduled class collected rating of teamwork and collaboration, roles for pharmacists in health care settings, and medical student’s expectations of the pharmacist when they are practicing physicians. Previous inter-professional workshop experience, negative experience with a pharmacist, age and sex was also collected. Main Results: Medical students’ attitudes regarding the roles of pharmacist in health care settings became more positive after attending the IPE workshop compared to their attitudes before attending the IPE workshop (X2 = 7.671, p-value = 0.005) and was maintained 1 year after the workshop (X2 = 6.304, p-value = 0.012). Medical students expected pharmacists to be more capable and had higher expectations for them after attending the IPE workshop (X2 = 17.393, p-value = <0.001) and was maintained 1 year after the workshop (X2 = 5.955, p-value = 0.015). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the inter-professional workshop is successful in changing the attitudes of medical students towards pharmacists and the roles they play on the healthcare team. The medical students maintained this change in attitude one year after the inter- professional workshop.

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: To identify areas of commonality between the health profession curriculums on the University of Arizona campus, encompassing nursing, pharmacy, medicine, and public health. Methods: This descriptive, cross sectional study used a set of predetermined interprofessional education (IPE) topics including communication, professional ethics, quality assurance and patient safety, evidence based medicine, and public health to compare the core curricula of the colleges. Syllabi for each class were analyzed to determine which, if any, of the topics mentioned previously were covered, and if needed professors were contacted for clarification purposes on their lectures. Main Results: Each of the health professional colleges covers all 5 of the interprofessional topics studied. Evidence based medicine was the most covered IPE topic with 233.5 hours followed by communication (153.5 hours), public health (133.75 hours), quality assurance and patient safety (106.5 hours), and professional ethics (59 hours). Conclusions: The University of Arizona Health Sciences Campus is capable of developing an interprofessional curriculum based on the shared aims amongst the colleges. Although we were unable to identify a specific time slot that could be used to teach IPE curricula, we are able to recommend that an IPE course be implemented in the first professional year for all the colleges as this was the time in which all the colleges spent the most time teaching IPE topics.

Class of 2010 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To determine how an interprofessional education (IPE) activity impacts students' attitudes toward interacting with other health professionals. METHODS: Students who are enrolled as first-­‐year students at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy in the Fall 2009 semester were eligible for this study. Questionnaires administered during regularly scheduled classes collected levels of agreement with statements relating to working with other health professionals and the importance of IPE. Data on gender, years of undergraduate study, current degrees, type of work experience, and years of work experience were also collected. RESULTS: Questionnaires were completed by 93 students before the IPE activity and 66 students after the IPE activity. Overall, attitudes toward interprofessional learning and working with other healthcare professionals, reflected by student questionnaire ratings, were the same or worse after the IPE activity. CONCLUSIONS: Attitudes toward interprofessional learning and working with other healthcare professionals appeared to have no change or changed for the worse after the IPE activity that took place on September 3, 2009.

The need for nurses to be collaborative and practice-ready upon entering the profession has never been more important than it is today. The Institute of Medicine has identified that teamwork and collaboration should be essential parts of the nursing curriculum to prepare nurses to be ready to manage patient care with a team-based approach. The literature supports the idea that by learning out of silos and bringing students together from all different pre-professional programs, the professional working environment can be mirrored and the processes of collaboration and communication within teams can start. Transition into practice has been studied for decades regarding the “burnout” and “reality shock” that result from the experience. However, no literature has been uncovered that has investigated the nurses’ experiences of transitioning into practice after receiving an interprofessional education. The present study used Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological perspective and vanManen’s phenomenological research method to illuminate the experiences of nurses transitioning into practice after having IPE. Ten practicing nurses who had received IPE were interviewed about their experiences transitioning into practice. Each participant shared stories about her transition period into professional practice. Through the process of reading and rereading transcripts, four essential themes emerged that shed light on the transition into practice after receiving IPE: (a) Understanding Team Dynamics, (b) Competent and Responsive Communicators, (c) Valuing Team Members, and (d) Recognized Self-Readiness. For this study, the lived experience of nurses who transitioned into practice after receiving an education with an IPE curriculum and practice is one of understanding team dynamics as competent and responsive communicators, valuing team members, and recognizing self-readiness. Interprofessional education does not have to occur only with students in nursing, medicine, or other allied health programs. Being creative with multiple programs at any institution can enrich students’ education by developing their communication and collaboration skills and adding quality and scope to their education experiences while preparing them for the real-world environment.

If nurse educators do not teach students to function in interprofessional teams, students may lack communication and teamwork skills, which can result in patient harm; however, nurse educators do not always understand the concept of interprofessional collaboration (IPC) and may, therefore, fail to teach it to students. The purpose of this multiple case study was to understand how undergraduate nurse educators prepared to teach IPC and how their preparation informed their teaching. The theory of transformative learning and the Interprofessional Education Collaborative core competencies of IPC framed this study. Data included semistructured interviews and associated documents from 9 nurse educators representing 3 different schools of nursing. Transcribed interviews and associated documents were coded for emergent themes. The 5 key themes that emerged related to nurse educator preparation to teach IPC were academic IPC preparation was limited, lack of formal preparation and an incomplete understanding, interprofessional communication: positive perceptions and perceived barriers, previous IPC exposure influenced instruction, and educators taught IPC informally. The results of this study may influence positive social change by inspiring educational leaders to consider the possibility that nurse educators may need IPC-specific faculty development. Research suggests that when educators know how to teach IPC, they can prepare students to practice in interprofessional teams. Most importantly, when new nurses know how to work in interprofessional teams, this may result in a decrease in the incidence of unintentional patient injuries.