Students’ Attitudes to Health Professionalsbefore and after
their interprofessional learning (IPL)
Dr Susanne LindqvistSenior Lecturer in Interprofessional Practice
Talk given at the Faculty of Health Research Colloquium 24th April 2009
Poor attitudes amongst healthcare professionals can negatively influence interprofessional working in healthcare settings,
which may ultimately impact unfavourably on patient care…
Interprofessional learning (IPL) is thought to encourage the development of positive attitudes
between healthcare professionals and improve teamworking in practice.
Was formed in 2002
Has since then developed an IPL programme with two arms of activity:
1) the post-registration IPL programme (working with clinical and inter-agency teams)
2) the pre-registration IPL programme (involving all healthcare students at UEA from 9 different programmes, ~ 1500 students)
Centre for Interprofessional Practice
http://www.uea.ac.uk/cipp
Interprofessional learning (IPL) programme
IPL1
IPL2
IPL3
Classroom based introduction to IPL.
Integration into practice including shadowing of other healthcare professionals.
One Day Student Conference – working alongside service users and practitioners to discuss interprofessional working practices and the impact on patient care.
IPL4 Involvement of service users in half-day topic based workshops.
Centre for Interprofessional Practice
The aim of the IPL programme is to foster the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour
that facilitate effective interprofessional teamworking
In order to measure students’ attitudes, before and after IPL, the Centre developed
the Attitudes to Health Professionals Questionnaire (AHPQ)
The AHPQ can be used to assess differences in attitudes between healthcare
professional groups
attitudinal change over time
The term ‘attitudes’ in the title of this measure, is defined as an indicator of how people make sense
of their experience (Eiser, 1997)
The AHPQcomprises different sections, for each profession. Each section contains 20 items (a pair of opposites).
Each part of the item serves as verbal anchors for each end of a visual analogue scale.
Two main components emerged from principal components analysis: “caring” and “subservient”
100Assertive Non-assertiveX
100Thoughtful Not thoughtfulX
“Caring items” “Subservient items” Caring/ non-caring Empathetic/ non-empathetic Approachable/ non-approachable Values teamwork/
does not value teamwork Sympathetic/ non-sympathetic Thoughtful/ not thoughtful Flexible/ not flexible Patient-centred/
not patient-centred Not self-centred/ self-centred Gentle/ rough Not arrogant/ arrogant Practical/ theoretical Conciliatory/ not conciliatory
Vulnerable/ confident Non-assertive/ assertive Does not value autonomy/
values autonomy Not technically focused/
technically focused Not independent/ independent Poorly paid/ well paid Not confrontational/
confrontational
Lets have a look at it…
http://ahpq.uea.ac.uk/
Copyright © July 2006, Centre for Interprofessional Practice, University of East Anglia. All rights reserved.
8575655545
‘Su
bse
rvie
nt’
20
15
10
5
0
Caring‘ ’
PHA
MED
PT MID
OT
NUR
Students’ views before the IPL programme
Students’ views after the IPL programme
Pri
nci
pal
Co
mp
on
ent
Sco
re
Principal Component Score
Students’ views before and after IPL
‘Caring’ dimension
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Pharm OT Medic Nurse PT
Profession
Prin
cipa
l com
pone
nt s
core
Before and After IPL1 comparing 2004 data with 2009
‘Subservient’ dimension
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Pharm OT Medic Nurse PT
Profession
Prin
cipa
l Com
pone
nt S
core
Before and After IPL1 comparing 2004 data with 2009
‘Caring’ dimension
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Pharm OT Medic Nurse PT
Prin
cipa
l com
pone
nt s
core
Students entering that profession
Other healthcare students
‘Subservient’ dimension
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Pharm OT Medic Nurse PT
Prin
cipa
l Com
pone
nt S
core
Students entering that profession
Other healthcare students
Negative attitudes can affect team performance in healthcare;
IPL is thought to encourage the development of positive interprofessional attitudes;
The AHPQ has been developed for the purpose of assessing attitudes. It measures two dimensions of interprofessional attitudes, which we have labelled ‘caring’ and ‘subservient’;
Healthcare students arrive at UEA with views of their own and other healthcare professions. Data suggest that students entering UEA now are more “caring” than those starting their training five years ago;
These attitudes/views – whatever the baseline - change over the course of students working together in IPL;
IPL may have a direct impact on the direction of these attitudinal changes;
To fully understand the underlying factors determining these changes and their implication on teamworking and patient care in practice, quantitative data need to be complemented with qualitative data.
In Conclusion
is in a unique position to carry out this research
Thank you for your attention – any questions?
Dr Susanne LindqvistSenior Lecturer in Interprofessional Practice