Abstract

Session presented on: Friday, July 26, 2013:

Purpose: Providing opportunities for interprofessional education for students in the health professions is supported by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative. It is imperative for healthcare professionals to communicate and collaborate in teams, and understand each profession's roles and responsibilities. The purpose of this project was to examine the impact of participating in an aging simulation game on nursing and medical students' attitudes toward interprofessional education.

Methods: Nursing and medical students were paired together to play an aging simulation game, role playing older adults and navigating the healthcare system. Pre/post changes in attitudes toward interprofessional learning were measured using the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS; 19 items, Likert-type). The RIPLS has 4 subscales (Teamwork and Collaboration, 9 items, ?=0.88; Negative Professional Identity, 3 items, ?=0.76; Positive Professional Identity, 4 items, ?=0.81; Roles and Responsibilities, 3 items, ?=0.43). Pre/post paired t-test analyses were performed using IBM SPSS v. 20.0.

Results: Thirty-six nursing and 15 medical students' attitudes toward interprofessional learning improved significantly in all 4 items of the subscale Positive Professional Identity: item 13 'Shared learning with other healthcare students will help me to communicate better with patients and other professionals' (p=0.031), item 14 'I would welcome the opportunity to work on small group projects with other healthcare students' (p=0.025), item 15 'Shared learning will help to clarify the nature of patient problems' (p=0.002), and item 16 'Shared learning before licensure will help me become a better team worker' (p=0.017). In subscale Teamwork and Collaboration, item 4 approached statistical significance (p=0.055). Improvements were seen on all other items in the instrument but were not statistically significant.

Conclusion: After collaborating together during an aging simulation game, nursing and medical students' attitudes significantly improved on 4 of 19 RIPLS items. The RIPLS provides means to assess changes in student attitudes toward interprofessional education.

Author Details

Karen S. Yehle, PhD, MS, RN, FAHA; Kimberly Sanders, ; Marwa Noureldin, PharmD, MS; Kimberly S. Plake, PhD, RPh

Sigma Membership

Unknown

Type

Presentation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Medical Students, Nursing Students, Interprofessional Education

Conference Name

24th International Nursing Research Congress

Conference Host

Sigma Theta Tau International

Conference Location

Prague, Czech Republic

Conference Year

2013

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Review Type

Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

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Assessment of nursing and medical students' attitudes toward interprofessional education

Prague, Czech Republic

Session presented on: Friday, July 26, 2013:

Purpose: Providing opportunities for interprofessional education for students in the health professions is supported by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative. It is imperative for healthcare professionals to communicate and collaborate in teams, and understand each profession's roles and responsibilities. The purpose of this project was to examine the impact of participating in an aging simulation game on nursing and medical students' attitudes toward interprofessional education.

Methods: Nursing and medical students were paired together to play an aging simulation game, role playing older adults and navigating the healthcare system. Pre/post changes in attitudes toward interprofessional learning were measured using the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS; 19 items, Likert-type). The RIPLS has 4 subscales (Teamwork and Collaboration, 9 items, ?=0.88; Negative Professional Identity, 3 items, ?=0.76; Positive Professional Identity, 4 items, ?=0.81; Roles and Responsibilities, 3 items, ?=0.43). Pre/post paired t-test analyses were performed using IBM SPSS v. 20.0.

Results: Thirty-six nursing and 15 medical students' attitudes toward interprofessional learning improved significantly in all 4 items of the subscale Positive Professional Identity: item 13 'Shared learning with other healthcare students will help me to communicate better with patients and other professionals' (p=0.031), item 14 'I would welcome the opportunity to work on small group projects with other healthcare students' (p=0.025), item 15 'Shared learning will help to clarify the nature of patient problems' (p=0.002), and item 16 'Shared learning before licensure will help me become a better team worker' (p=0.017). In subscale Teamwork and Collaboration, item 4 approached statistical significance (p=0.055). Improvements were seen on all other items in the instrument but were not statistically significant.

Conclusion: After collaborating together during an aging simulation game, nursing and medical students' attitudes significantly improved on 4 of 19 RIPLS items. The RIPLS provides means to assess changes in student attitudes toward interprofessional education.