Objectives. To assess the validity and reliability of an instrument to measure pharmacy students' attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration, and compare those attitudes to the attitudes of medical students. Methods. One hundred sixty-six first-year pharmacy students and 77 first-year medical students at Midwestern University completed the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration.Results. Findings confirmed the validity and reliability of the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration in pharmacy students, as observed previously for medical students. Pharmacy students' mean score was significantly higher (56.6 6 7.2) than that of medical students (52.0 6 6.1). Maximum likelihood factoring confirmed the 3-factor solution of responsibility and accountability, shared authority, and interdisciplinary education for pharmacy students. Conclusions. The Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration can be used for the assessment of interdisciplinary educational programs, for patient outcome assessment of interprofessional collaboration, and for group comparisons. Findings that pharmacy students expressed more positive attitudes toward collaboration than medical students have implications for interdisciplinary education.Keywords: interprofessional collaboration, interprofessional education, health professions students, reliability, validity, psychometrics, attitudes
INTRODUCTIONInterprofessional collaboration in patient care among US health care professionals began in World War II when medical, surgical, and nursing teams worked together to treat injured soldiers. 1 Health care providers now consider collaboration and teamwork to be an important component of professionalism 2 leading to greater patient safety 1 and better patient outcomes. 3-9 Physician-pharmacist collaboration results in improved patient self-care skills, fewer drug interactions 10,11 and medication errors, 12 and more cost-effective use of medication, 13 all of which lead to more effective drug therapy and better patient outcomes.Interdisciplinary education in medical and pharmacy colleges and schools is designed to enhance the skills that physicians and pharmacists will need to function in interprofessional health care teams. 14 These educational efforts are to ensure that all health care practitioners effectively use their specialized training and expertise to optimize patient care and improve therapeutic outcomes. For example, medical and pharmacy students at Midwestern University are taught together in several basic science and communications courses and in an introductory course entitled Health Care Issues. A collaborative relationship between pharmacists and physicians is needed more than ever because of the rapid advancements in medical and pharmaceutical sciences, occurrence of complex drug interactions, increased costs of drug-related morbidity, greater possibility of medical errors, and rapidly rising health care costs. Schellens and colleagues stated: "In view of its increasing co...