There has been limited research on the effect of interprofessional education (IPE) over time on the attitudes of undergraduate health and human service professional students. Previous research in this area has suggested that students from different professions report differing attitudes towards IPE and interprofessional teamwork, and such attitudes may also be influenced by other background characteristics of the students themselves (e.g., gender, age). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the longitudinal effect of the introduction of an IPE curriculum on students' attitudes towards IPE and teamwork. A time series study design was conducted to assess the attitudes of undergraduate health and human service professional students towards IPE and teamwork, and students were also asked to complete satisfaction surveys after IPE curriculum activities. Significant differences in the attitudes of students from different professions and their satisfaction with participation in IPE were reported over the duration of the study. Overall, student satisfaction with IPE participation was relatively positive; however the introduction of IPE curriculum during their undergraduate education did not appear to have a significant longitudinal effect on attitudes towards IPE or interprofessional teamwork. The findings have implications for the design and integration of IPE curriculum within existing uni-professional curriculum.

Relatively little is known about the specific attributes of health professional students which may influence their attitudes towards both interprofessional teamwork and interprofessional education. A survey was distributed to all pre‐licensure health professional students from medicine, nursing, pharmacy and social work programmes at our institution. Respondents were asked to rate their attitudes towards interprofessional healthcare teams and interprofessional education using validated and reliable scales reported in the literature. Information on the respondents’ gender, profession, year of study and prior experience with interprofessional education was also collected. There was no significant difference between attitudes of medicine and nursing students towards interprofessional teamwork; however, both these student groups report significantly less positive attitudes towards interprofessional teams than pharmacy and social work students. Medicine students reported significantly less positive attitudes towards interprofessional education than nursing, pharmacy and social work students. Female students and senior undergraduate students reported significantly more positive attitudes towards interprofessional teamwork and interprofessional education, while students reporting prior experience with interprofessional education reported significantly more positive attitudes towards interprofessional teamwork. Profession, gender and year of study appear to be attributes which were related to more positive attitudes towards both interprofessional teamwork and education.

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