Improving Pharmacy Students’ Attitudes Toward Collaborative Practice Through a Large-scale Interprofessional Forum Targeting Opioid Dependence

Abstract

Objective. To evaluate the impact of a large-scale interprofessional forum on pharmacy students’ attitudes toward interprofessional collaborative practice.

Methods. Pharmacy students were asked to complete the Interprofessional Attitudes Scale (IPAS) prior to and after completing a three-hour interprofessional forum. Scores for the total IPAS and each of the subscales were computed using the mean of students’ responses to the items for each.

Results. Of the 133 pharmacy students who participated in the forum, there were valid pre- and post-intervention matched IPAS data for 124 (93.2%). In general, prior to the forum, students reported positive attitudes toward interprofessional collaborative practice as demonstrated by mean scores greater than 4.0 (agree) on the total IPAS scale and on all of the IPAS subscales except the Interprofessional Biases subscale). There was a significant increase from pre- to post-intervention scores on all the subscales except Patient-Centeredness. Based on the Cohen d measure of effect size, the greatest changes were in the Teamwork, Roles and Responsibilities and Community-Centeredness subscales, followed by the Interprofessional Biases subscale and Diversity and Ethics subscale.

Conclusion. Prior to participating in an interprofessional student forum, pharmacy students generally had positive attitudes toward interprofessional collaborative practice. After participating in the forum, these attitudes become even more positive. Interprofessional education interventions, such as the forum, play an important role in shaping student’s attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration.