Students' readiness for and perception of inter-professional learning: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Inter-professional education is a critical pedagogical approach aiming at preparing healthcare students for providing patient care in a collaborative team atmosphere. To investigate the readiness for and perception of inter-professional learning and their relationship among healthcare students. It was a correlational, cross-sectional study. Two hundred and fifty undergraduate medical, B.Sc. nursing, and B.Sc. science in surgical technology students participated in this study. The samples were selected from the colleges affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences using stratified random sampling. The Readiness for Inter-Professional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) were used to measure the readiness for and perception of inter-professional leaning. The data were analyzed using One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and independent sample T-test. The total mean scores of readiness for and perception of inter-professional learning were 82.40 (SD=23.16) and 74.04 (SD=14.26), respectively. Besides, the medical students' total mean score of readiness was significantly lower than that of the nursing and science in surgical technology students (F=76.73, P<0.0001). The results showed a significant difference between the current years of study regarding RIPLS and IEPS (P<0.0001). Also, a significant difference was demonstrated among the three fields concerning IEPS and its four subscales. Moreover, the total score of RIPLS was associated with that of IEPS (r=0.43, P<0.0001). This study indicated that the medical students had the lowest RIPLS. In addition, the nursing students reported the lowest IEPS; therefore, this group's curriculum is suggested to be revised. For evidence based practice, other studies are recommended to improve inter-professional learning.