Perceived Benefits and Challenges of Interprofessional Education Based on a Multidisciplinary Faculty Member Survey

Abstract

Objective: To identify differences among faculty members in various health professional training programs in perceived benefits and challenges of implementing interprofessional education (IPE). Methods: A 19-item survey using a 5-point Likert scale was administered to faculty members across different health disciplines at a west coast, multicollege university with osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, and physician assistant programs. Results: Sixty-two of 103 surveys (60.2%) were included in the study. Faculty members generally agreed that there were benefits of IPE on patient outcomes and that implementing IPE was feasible. However, group differences existed in belief that IPE improves care efficiency (p50.001) and promotes team-based learning (p50.001). Program divergence was also seen in frequency of stressing importance of IPE (p50.009), preference for more IPE opportunities (p50.041), and support (p50.002) within respective college for IPE. Conclusions: Despite consensus among faculty members from 3 disciplines that IPE is invaluable to their curricula and training of health care students, important program level differences existed that would likely need to be addressed in advance IPE initiatives.

Respiratory Therapy Faculty Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Education

“…6 Faculty attitudes and knowledge of IPE in other health professional programs have been evaluated previously. [7][8][9] In this study, knowledge refers to IPE implementation and definition. Faculty attitudes are the personal perception of individual institutions, programs, and their colleagues' ability to implement IPE within RT.…”

“…Previous studies among pharmacy, osteopathic medicine, and physician assistant faculty have reported barriers to IPE implementation due to limited access to other health-care disciplines, the lack of adequate clinical training sites, lack of administrative support, insufficient faculty resources, lack of standardized assessment tools, and little flexibility within curriculum requirements. 10,11 Reeves et al 12 call for additional studies in professionspecific IPE interventions, randomized control trials, and qualitative measures involving IPE and practice changes, and cost-benefit analysis to efficiently expand this field. American health-care educational accrediting bodies currently lack a collective mandate for IPE, although an evaluation found that most programs, such as nursing, used some form of interprofessional language in their accrediting standards.…”

Nursing Faculty's Needs of Knowledge, Beliefs, and Readiness to Implement Interprofessional Education in their Teaching: An Exploratory Study

“…revealed that medical faculty had a significantly lower mean score than that of their nursing counterparts. Lash et al (2014) found that faculty from medicine had lower opinion scores of perceived support for IPE when compared to the scores of colleagues of pharmacy and physician assistant programs. Lower results among medical faculty explain why learning and teaching with nursing and other health faculty members is an important strategy for addressing stereotypes.…”

“…The rise of interest in interprofessional practice and education is shared by health educators in Canada (Bilodeau, Dubois, & Pepin, 2013;D'Amour & Oandasan, 2005;Gilbert, 2005a;Pfaff, Baxter, Jack, & Ploeg, 2013), the United Kingdom (Barr & Low, 2013;Barr, Helme, & D'Avray, 2011;Lewy, 2010;Reeves, Perrier, Golman, Freeth, & Zwarenstein, 2013), the United States of America (Lash et al, 2014), and Norway (Kyrkjebø, Brattebø, & Smith-Strøm, 2006). …”

The benefits of interprofessional education 10 years on

“…Successful interprofessional learning can develop students' ability to communicate and work with other professionals, potentially improving the environment for service users and professionals." Medical students tend to be more negative about IPE (Lash et al 2014). However as Harden (2015) states if doctors are to practice effectively within multi-disciplinary teams they need to have an understanding and respect of the roles of other professions.…”