The effectiveness of a shared conference experience in improving undergraduate medical and nursing students’ attitudes towards inter-professional education in an Asian country: a before and after study

Abstract

BackgroundIn recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed on the importance of collaboration within multi-disciplinary healthcare teams, so as to facilitate holistic patient care and thus allow improved treatment outcomes. There is hence an urgent need to educate healthcare undergraduates early in their professional careers on the importance of and complexities involved in cooperating with counterparts from other allied healthcare professions. In conjunction with this, a milestone student-led conference for undergraduate students, the 9th Student Medical-Nursing Education Conference (SMEC), was organised in 2013 to provide a unique opportunity for shared learning among the entire cohort of undergraduate medical and nursing students in Singapore matriculating in that year.MethodsThis study evaluated the effectiveness of the 9th SMEC 2013 as a shared conference experience in improving the attitudes of undergraduate medical and nursing students in Singapore towards inter-professional education (IPE). A 19-point Readiness for Inter-Professional Learning Scale (RIPLS) questionnaire comprising three subscales was administered to participants both before and after the conference. 352 responses were collected, giving a response rate of 75.1 %. Results were analysed using paired-samples t-tests with statistical significance set at p = 0.05.ResultsImprovements in overall scores for both medical and nursing students were reported for all three RIPLS subscales. Examining the RIPLS items individually, significant improvement in scores for both medical and nursing students was obtained in all 19 items. Prior exposure to IPE activities was not a predictor of improvement in IPE attitudes.ConclusionThe authors propose that student-led jointly-organised conference experiences are effective in improving healthcare students’ attitudes towards IPE. This study provides valuable insights to facilitate the development of further IPE programs to allow for the rapid and effective promotion of cooperation and collaboration between students across various healthcare disciplines.

Students’ Perception and Readiness towards Inter-Professional Learning

“…The relationship between RIPLS and IEPS indicated that preparing for interdisciplinary learning may promote appropriate professional attitudes in the students, emphasize conventional perceptions of other professions. As compare to another study Inter-professional education is extremely important in increasing a readiness in students to work with other healthcare students (Chua et al, 2015). Present study findings showed strong positive correlation between readiness and perception of students for interprofessional learning.…”

Impact of an Interprofessional, Longitudinal, Undergraduate Student-Initiated Home Visit Program Towards Interprofessional Education

“…The mean baseline RIPLS score is comparable with a study by Chua et al conducted in Singapore. (26) Chua et al also found higher baseline RIPLS scores for medical undergraduates compared to other groups of undergraduates, a nding also noted in this study and another done in a culturally similar country. (26,29) This is contrary to other studies which found that medical students had a lower RIPLS score.…”

“…(26) Chua et al also found higher baseline RIPLS scores for medical undergraduates compared to other groups of undergraduates, a nding also noted in this study and another done in a culturally similar country. (26,29) This is contrary to other studies which found that medical students had a lower RIPLS score. (30,31) Chua et al also found that prior exposure to IPE resulted in signi cantly higher RIPLS scores.…”

Assessment of medical professionalism: preliminary results of a qualitative study

“…Under the Interprofessional relationship skills domain, we identified a new sub-domain "demonstrated collegiality". According to Hofstede's cultural dimension theory, Asians tend to be more collectivist compared to Western populations [18], and this was highlighted in the new sub-domain "demonstrated collegiality", which demonstrates the faculty's perception of the increasing importance of team-based care and collaboration between various healthcare professionals, whose opinions should be respected [34,35]. The importance of collegiality was also highlighted in the study by Chandratilake et al who showed that working with one's colleagues towards common goals was deemed to be important in European and North American countries [21].…”