The QUIPPED Project: Students’ Attitudes Toward Integrating Interprofessional Education into the Curriculum
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22230/jripe.2013v3n1a34Keywords:
Interprofessional Education, Attitudes, Curriculum Reform, health care learnersAbstract
Background: Healthcare learners are the future healthcare providers. The preparation
they receive in their pre-registration programs will be vital to ensuring that they practice patient-centred care. One approach to this learning model is interprofessional education (IPE).
Methods and Findings: Learner attitudes towards interprofessional education and practice were obtained over a thirty-three month period from the Queen’s University Inter-Professional Patient-centred Education Direction (QUIPPED) project. Attitudes were measured by questionnaires based on a 6-point Likert scale. The learners received a number of opportunities to engage in IPE and demonstrated positive attitudes. The degree to which one or more educational initiatives can make a difference in attitude is limited. However, over the course of the project both statistically significant and clinically meaningful differences were found. Different health professional student groups, including medical, medical radiation technology, nursing, occupational therapy, and physical therapy learners varied in their attitudinal responses, demonstrating they have already acquired professional identity.
Conclusions: Recommendations include offering varied opportunities to learners, and providing them with the tools to communicate and collaborate together. Limitations include a lack of empirical evidence as to whether IPE translates into interprofessional practice and better patient-centred care.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
JRIPE publishes original research in Interprofessional Practice and Education. It allows authors to maintain copyright in exchange for a limited term exclusive license to make the article publicly available; followed by a permanent non-exclusive licence to continue making the article available to users; and the right to make the article available through databases. It asks for 50 percent of any commercial fees payable for usage. Authors may, at any time, archive the work on their own site or that of their institution. Authors must indemnify the journal against damage; obtain any necessary permissions; and attest to the article’s originality and legitimate legal status.
Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute with the acknowledgement that this aricle was first published by the Journal of Interprofessional Practice and Education, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal.