Purpose: Healthcare professionals strive for interprofessional practice to achieve optimal patient care. Extant research suggests that to best prepare students for interprofessional practice, interprofessional education (IPE) should be a key element in curriculum. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to evaluate the impact of an IPE activity on participants’ attitudes and perceptions of IPE across five academic programs. Methods: This study utilized a modified version of the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale Questionnaire (RIPLS) pre and post IPE and reflective essays. Participants included 67 students from nursing, occupational therapy, athletic training, dietetics, and speech-language pathology programs. After reviewing a hypothetical case study, participants collaboratively developed assessment and treatment recommendations. Questionnaires were analyzed using statistical procedures and reflective essays underwent thematic analysis. Results: Collectively, data revealed significant changes in participants’ perceptions, attitudes, and implementation readiness. Occupational therapy student participants had statistically significant increases in the RIPLS composite score, Teamwork and Collaboration, and the Positive Professional Identity components (p≤0.03). Participants with previous IPE experience scored 4-points higher on the RIPLS composite score (p=0.03). The reflective essays revealed the themes of barriers associated with collaboration, a deeper understanding and appreciation of other discipline’s roles and the value of teamwork in achieving optimal patient care. Participants reported beginning the interprofessional education experience with anxiety and uncertainty about not only their involvement but also the roles of other healthcare professionals. Throughout the experience, participants emerged with an increased knowledge of their role, others’ roles, and the value of working together within a professional setting to achieve the same goal, optimal patient care. Conclusions: Our findings reveal the benefits of interprofessional education and the necessity to include several healthcare professionals associated with rehabilitation in interprofessional research and education. With more disciplines represented, students receive a broader, more in-depth understanding of not only patient care but also the roles of multiple disciplines they will collaborate with during actual rehabilitative practice.
Recently, scholars and practitioners have called for a more systemic approach to workplace well-being, shifting the focus from individual attitudes and behaviours to underlying factors of the work environment as key ingredients in the mitigation of work stress. While leadership has been examined extensively in organisational research as a personal characteristic, stewardship represents a metaphenomenon functioning beyond interpersonal exchanges. Stewardship is proposed as an organisational approach that emphasizes a sense of purpose toward the common good through the sharing of power, resources, and information across networks in working through complex issues. The present study examined the concept of stewardship within the framework of organisational stress and well-being. Using a large sample of 2,314 senior executives from the Canadian public service a questionnaire measure of stewardship was developed and tested using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and reliability estimates. Results indicated that the 5-item scale was reliable, displayed a unitary factor structure and correlated significantly with established job resources, perceived stress, and indicators of well-being. Then, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that stewardship contributed significant incremental variance in the relationship between psychological stress and measures of distress, cynicism, and work engagement. Moreover, hierarchical regression results revealed that stewardship was conceptually distinct from other established job resources (such as job control and social support). Overall, the results supported the notion of stewardship as an important additional systemic organisational resource. Findings have important implications for both researchers and practitioners interested in the well-being and performance of executives.
Public Significance StatementA better understanding of how systemic organisational level processes and dynamics influence the well-being of employees is crucial for the development and success of health promotion initiatives. The results of this study suggest that executives working in organisations that promote the sharing of power, knowledge, and resources with a strong and explicit sense of purpose toward to the common good report lower stress and higher well-being.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.