From students to professionals: Results of a longitudinal study of attitudes to pre-qualifying collaborative learning and working in health and social care in the United Kingdom

Abstract

During a longitudinal evaluation of a pre-qualifying interprofessional curriculum, health and social care students completed questionnaires concerning communication and teamwork skills and interprofessional learning and working. Data were collected on entry to their educational programme, during the second year of study, at qualification and after 9-12 months' qualified practice. This paper presents results from practice data from 414 professionals; 275 were educated on the interprofessional curriculum, 139 on previous uniprofessional curricula. The former were more confident at qualification about their communicative skills, their interprofessional relationships and other professionals' interaction, and showed positive correlations between perceptions of their relevant skills and their interprofessional relationships. They were also more positive about their interprofessional relationships than practitioners educated on uniprofessional curricula. Age and previous experience of higher education influenced professionals' attitudes negatively: mature individuals may require more support when entering the workforce. Between qualification and practice, respondents from the interprofessional cohorts grew more critical of interprofessional education. However, experience of interprofessional education appears to produce and sustain positive attitudes towards collaborative working, suggesting that individuals' perceptions of their own educational experience are inadequate as an evaluative measure of interprofessional learning initiatives. This study reinforces the argument for including IPE in pre-qualifying curricula.

Attitudes toward Healthcare Teamwork between Osteopathic Medical Students in an Interprofessional or Intraprofessional Clinical Education Program

“…Although some studies demonstrated sustained attitude change over a few months to almost two years as a result of an intervention (Bajnok, Puddester, MacDonald, Archibald, & Kuhl, 2012;Pollard & Miers, 2008), this study provided preliminary evidence that no change in attitude toward interprofessional healthcare teams and perception of teamwork skill proficiency resulted from an interprofessional clinical education intervention program for osteopathic physicians seven to11 years post-medical school. Interprofessional clinical education programs seem to improve teamwork knowledge and skills for medical students (Reeves, Goldman, Burton, & Sawatzky-Girling, 2010; but may not have long-lasting effects for them as seasoned medical professionals.…”

“…Documentation of long-term impact of interprofessional education on medical practice is limited, although in some cases, attitudinal changes were sustained three months (Bajnok, Puddester, MacDonald, Archibald, & Kuhl, 2012) to one to two years beyond intervention (Pollard & Miers, 2008). Without continuing education, managerial follow-up, and reinforcement, though, this type of change is less likely to be sustained (Henderson, 2012).…”

Interprofessional Education for Practice: Some Implications for Australian Social Work

“…The results of research studies into the effectiveness of IPE in achieving the desired outcome were inconclusive. However, the recent longitudinal study of pre-qualifying health and social care students by Pollard and Miers (2008) has been more promising. The benefits of interprofessional education were evident about 12 months into practice with professionals demonstrating more confidence in their own skills and the relationships established with other professionals.…”

“…These range from students holding more positive views about working interprofessionally at the beginning of such programs than when they finished (Mandy et al, 2004;Pollard et al, 2006), to those where students articulated more positive responses at its conclusion (Pollard & Miers, 2008;Smith & Anderson, 2007). Differences between expectations and the realities of experience were evident in most studies.…”

“…Social work students at universities in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, and Australia have participated in a range of interprofessional activities that have included their participation in shared learning experiences with students from other disciplines on university campuses, in health and social care agencies (Cleak & Williamson, 2007;Craddock et al, 2006;Smith & Anderson, 2007), and in research projects that have evaluated the effectiveness of interprofessional education (Nisbet, Hendry, Rolls, & Field, 2008;Pollard & Miers, 2008;Pollard, Miers, Gilchrist, & Sayers, 2006). In a UK study of student perceptions of themselves as pre-qualifying practitioners, Hean, Macleod-Clark, Adams, Humphris, and Lathlean (2006) compared 10 health profession disciplines and found that groups of medical students and social work students were seen by others as they saw themselves, which ''implies that these professions will suffer least from a threat to their group distinctiveness'' (p. 10).…”