Student Pharmacists’ Attitude Changes Toward Interprofessional Education Following an Introductory Interprofessional Course

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE) has the potential to enhance collaboration among healthcare professionals in providing best patient care. Several IPE studies reported findings about multiple disciplines, but there is scant information focusing on IPE in student pharmacists. The objectives were to (1) measure changes in student pharmacists' attitudes toward introductory interprofessional education using SPICE-R2, and (2) obtain a comprehensive understanding of attitude changes by integrating quantitative and qualitative results. Methods: A convergent mixed methods design was used and involved quantitative data about the attitudes measured by the SPICE-R2 survey and qualitative open-ended questions about students' opinions. Participants completed the survey three times, before and after completing an online course and after participating in an in-person event.Results: Of 89 student pharmacists that participated in this study, 55 and 27 students provided complete responses for the online course and the event, respectively. Paired t-tests showed significant improvements in students' attitudes after completing the online course for the three SPICE-R2 subdomains and the qualitative data was confirmatory. After participating in the event, students' attitudes were not significantly changed. The meta-inferences were expansive in four areas including Team Building, Professional Communication, Learning from the group case study, and Healthcare Challenges. Conclusion:The online course was an effective learning activity for improving student pharmacists' attitudes toward IPE. The event was a viable learning activity to maintain or increase the students' attitudes towards inter-professional Roles and Teamwork. The mixed methods findings provided 'value added' with a more comprehensive understanding of attitude change.