Understanding students’ readiness for interprofessional learning in an Asian context: a mixed-methods study

Endang Lestari,Doni Widyandana,Renée E Stalmeijer,Albert Scherpbier

doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0704-3

Abstract

BackgroundHealthcare is generally provided by various health professionals acting together. Unfortunately, poor communication and collaboration within such healthcare teams often prevent its members from actively engaging in collaborative decision-making. Interprofessional education (IPE) which prepares health professionals for their collaborative role in the healthcare system may partially address this problem. This study aimed to investigate: 1) students’ readiness for IPE in an Asian context, 2) the most important factors influencing students’ perceptions of IPE, 3) the reasons underlying such perceptions, and 4) the factors mitigating or promoting their sense of readiness.MethodsTo identify students’ perceptions of IPE, we administered the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) to 398 in approximately 470 students from a range of health professions (medicine, nursing, midwifery and dentistry). The questionnaire included factors that could potentially influence readiness for IPE as found in the literature (GPA, etc.). To enhance our understanding of the responses to the RIPLS and to explore the reasons underlying them, we conducted 4 mono-professional focus group discussions (FGDs). We ran a statistical analysis on the quantitative data, while performing a thematic content analysis of the qualitative data using ATLAS.ti (version 7).ResultsMedical students seemed to be the most prepared for IPE. Students’ perceptions of IPE were conditioned by the study programme they took, their GPA, intrinsic motivation and engagement in the student council connoting experience of working with students from different programmes. Focus groups further revealed that: 1) early exposure to clinical practice triggered both positive and negative perceptions of IPE and of its importance to learning communication and leadership skills, 2) medical students caused insecurity and disengagement in other students, 3) medical students felt pressured to be leaders, and 4) there was a need to clarify and understand each other’s profession and the boundaries of one’s own profession.ConclusionStudents were generally favourable to IPE, appreciating the opportunity it offered them to hone their interprofessional leadership, collaboration and communication skills and to learn to address the problem of role blurring. Hence, we judge the Asian context ready to implement IPE, allowing health professions students in Asian countries to reap its benefits. The present study revealed several important reasons underlying students’ positive and negative perceptions of IPE implementation which may be addressed during the interprofessional learning process.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0704-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

Healthcare is generally provided by various health professionals acting together
Interprofessional collaboration is not self-evident and is fraught with problems such as ineffective communication, poor interprofessional relationships, a lack of trust between team members, and an underestimation of other health professionals’ roles [1]. These factors hinder the effective involvement of all team members in collaborative decision-making regarding patient care and the implementation of healthcare services. To partially address this problem, the WHO has recommended the introduction of interprofessional education (IPE) which helps future healthcare professionals prepare for their collaborative role in the healthcare system
Research has revealed that health professionals who were trained to collaborate as a team in an interprofessional educational setting during their student years were far more likely to be effective collaborators in their future professional clinical setting [2]

Summary

Introduction

Healthcare is generally provided by various health professionals acting together. poor communication and collaboration within such healthcare teams often prevent its members from actively engaging in collaborative decision-making. Interprofessional collaboration is not self-evident and is fraught with problems such as ineffective communication, poor interprofessional relationships, a lack of trust between team members, and an underestimation of other health professionals’ roles [1] These factors hinder the effective involvement of all team members in collaborative decision-making regarding patient care and the implementation of healthcare services. To partially address this problem, the WHO has recommended the introduction of interprofessional education (IPE) which helps future healthcare professionals prepare for their collaborative role in the healthcare system. Doctors are considered to hold the highest positions in society, whereas other health professionals such as nurses and midwives are marginalised This situation further complicates effective interprofessional collaboration within healthcare teams and could potentially undermine successful implementation of IPE in higher education. To our knowledge, there have been few studies [5, 14, 15] that addressed students’ attitudes towards IPE in an Asian context

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Conclusion