Attitudes, and Knowledge of Pharmacy and Medical/ Dental Students towards, and Barriers to Inter-Professional Education and Collaboration in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Inter-professional collaboration (IPC) is necessary for the provision of patient care poor IPC has negative impact on the delivery of healthcare services and patient care. OBJECTIVE: Purpose of this study is to assess and evaluate the knowledge and attitude of final years’ medical students toward IPC. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was designed, pre-piloted and distributed to final years’ pharmacy, medical/ dental students in the University of Sharjah and Ajman University of Science and Technology (UAE). RESULTS: A total of 212 (70.7%) surveys have been received out of 250 targeted students, 3 of the surveys were excluded due to incomplete data. The response rate was 83.6%.The majority of the respondents were females (155; 75.2%), Arabs (156; 75.7%), medical and dental students (129; 61.7%), senior students (104; 51.5%) and were living with their families (133; 63.6%). More than half of the participants were between 21-23 years old (158; 76%) and were self-sponsored (155; 74.9%). Among the 209 students, 80 (38.3%) of them were pharmacy students and the rest were medical and dental students (129; 61.7%). In general students’ attitudes towards inter-professional collaboration seem to be positive. The majority of students of both groups agreed that share common goals and objectives when caring for the patient, their roles are complementary to one another and an introductory IP experience would have a positive impact on their understanding of collaboration and teamwork. Again there was a general agreement among all students of the present barriers to effective inter-professional education and collaboration. CONCLUSION: We conclude that some professional mandatory classes need to be common among the different health colleges. In addition, workshops should be implemented for pharmacy, medical, dental and nurse students as a sort of practical regular extracurricular activities or can be projected as a theatrical play.