Interprofessional education and collaborative practice in Kuwait: attitudes and barriers from faculty

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional education (IPE) has been adopted in many educational systems to prepare students in the health professions for team-based practice, but its implementation is still limited in many countries. In preparation for the introduction of IPE within Kuwait University Health Sciences Center, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to explore the attitudes of faculty members (academic staff/academic support staff) toward collaborative practice and IPE, their training needs, and perceived barriers to implementing IPE. Two hundred and ten individuals completed the survey (60% response rate). Respondents expressed positive attitudes toward interprofessional healthcare teams, IPE, and interprofessional learning in the academic setting (median [IQR] overall attitude for each scale was 4.0 [1.0] on a scale of 5). Overall attitudes were significantly more positive among assistant professors, females, and faculty members with ≤ 10 years of experience (p < .05). Most respondents (91.9%) indicated willingness to be trained to implement IPE, with small-group learning as the preferred teaching method (85.7%). A longitudinal curriculum was less popular than discrete IPE experiences. The top reported barriers to implementing IPE were leadership challenges (86.6%), curriculum challenges (82.4%), teaching challenges (81.4%), and resistance to change (80.5%). These findings have implications for developing strategies to engage faculty in effective IPE initiatives internationally.

KEYWORDS:

• Team-based patient care
• professional attitudes
• interprofessional education
• interprofessional collaborative practice

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the faculty members who participated in the study. We are grateful to our colleagues who helped in distributing the study questionnaire and encouraged faculty members to participate in the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

No Funding

Notes on contributors

Maram G. Katoue

Maram G. Katoue is a pharmacist and an Associate Teaching Assistant at the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Kuwait University Faculty of Pharmacy. Ms. Katoue holds BSc degree in Pharmacy, MSc degree in Pharmacology, and MSc degree in Diabetes Care and Education. She served as a member of the Interprofessional Education Committee at Kuwait University Health Sciences Center. Her research interests include pharmacy education, clinical skills development, interprofessional education, and research related to pharmacy practice.

Abdelmoneim I. Awad

Abdelmoneim I. Awad is a Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the Department of Pharmacy Practice, Kuwait University Faculty of Pharmacy. He was previously the Chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Kuwait University (2010-2017). He has served as a Chair of the Departmental Research Committee, member of the Faculty of Pharmacy Research Committee, and the Health Sciences Center Ethical Committee. His main research interests are in clinical and outcome research, use of medicines and medication safety, pharmacy practice, and pharmacy education.

Alan W. Dow

Alan W. Dow is a general internist, the Seymour and Ruth Perlin Professor of Medicine and Health Administration, and the Assistant Vice President of Health Sciences for Interprofessional Education& Collaborative Care at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.

Terry L. Schwinghammer

Terry L. Schwinghammer PharmD FCCP FASHP FAPhA is Professor Emeritus at the West Virginia University (WVU) School of Pharmacy in Morgantown, WV, USA. He was previously the Arthur I. Jacknowitz Distinguished Chair in Clinical Pharmacy and Chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at WVU (2005-2018).