Interprofessional Experiences and Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Health Care Teams Among Health Sciences Students

Abstract

This study examined how the interprofessional experience, including education and practice, affects graduate health science students’ attitudes toward interprofessional practice in health care teams. Data were collected from 227 graduate students, using the Attitudes toward Health Care Teams (ATHCT) scale. Both social work and other health science students had positive attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration with regard to its ability to improve the quality of a patient’s care. The results from hierarchical linear regression analyses demonstrated that female students, older students, and students with longer interprofessional practice experiences had more positive attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration in health care teams. Based on these results, implications for interprofessional education are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• interprofessional collaboration
• interprofessional practice
• interprofessional education
• hospital social work
• health care students

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank Drs. Bethany Lee, Llewellyn Cornelius, and Donna Harrington for their generous support in developing this research project and providing feedback. We also thank Sang Jung Lee, Judith Leitch, Stacey Shipe, and Allison West for collaboration in developing the survey and collecting data.