Attitudes and Beliefs of Physical Therapist and Physical Therapist Assistant Program Directors in the United States Towards Interprofessional Education

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the attitudes and beliefs of physical therapy (PT) and physical therapist assistant (PTA) program directors towards interprofessional education (IPE). We hypothesized that Communication and Ethics would be the most important competencies among program directors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey based on previously utilized instruments modified for the profession of PT was sent to PT and PTA program directors. One hundred sixteen responses were analyzed using frequency analysis for demographic data and non-parametric Mann-Whitney U t-test for group differences. Results: While the majority of program directors agree that IPE is important, with Communication as the most important IPE competency, most PTA program directors do not support the importance of accreditation in implementing IPE (pConclusion:Program directors agree that IPE is vital to student learning, with Communication as the most important IPE competency. However, specific differences between PT and PTA program directors emerged primarily on IPE implementation, the role of accreditation, resource support, and resource utilization.

Changes of Interprofessional Education in Athletic Training: A 5-Year Follow-up Study

“…The single-stage 29-question survey was designed based on previously used questionnaires published in the literature (Bamfield-Cummings et al, 2023;Curran et al, 2007;Hughes et al, 2019;Patton et al, 2018;Ramiscal et al, 2022;Tolle et al, 2019;Vernon et al, 2017). The survey questions investigated the demographics of the faculty, the characteristics of their programs, perceptions of the importance of IPE competencies, attitudes towards IPE, and attitudes and beliefs about IPE learning in the academic settings.…”

“…However, faculty attitudes toward IPE differ based on faculty rank, prior experience, and skill level using IPE (Parry, 2017). Previous research studies have highlighted faculty attitudes toward IPE, perceptions of importance of IPE four competencies, barriers, and opportunities to implementation among faculty in nursing (Curran et al, 2007;Olenick & Allen, 2013) and in several allied health professional programs such as respiratory therapy (Behr et al, 2022;Vernon et al, 2018;Vernon et al, 2017), nutrition (Patton et al, 2018), occupational therapy (Hughes et al, 2019), physical therapy (Ramiscal et al, 2022), dental hygiene (Tolle et al, 2019), medical laboratory science (Bamfield-Cummings et al, 2023), and radiation science (Kindle et al, 2023). While IPE is recognized as necessary, there are still perceived challenges in incorporating IPE into the academic curricula.…”