A study on the attitude change through interprofessional education course for staff of health and social welfare

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine whether learning in interprofessional education training courses influences the attitude of course participants toward interprofessional collaboration in the areas of health and social welfare. There were three groups of subjects. The first group consisted of students of a training course of interprofessional education in the Center for professional education of a University. The second group were all nurses who took another interprofessional education training course in the same center. The third group was a control group made up of workers of various professions who did not participate in any interprofessional education course of the center. A questionnaire was used in this study. It included three scales to measure the attitude toward interprofessional collaboration, the recognition about the role and function of workers of other professions, and the evaluation of team care in one’s workplace. Each subject completed the questionnaire three times, namely, in the beginning of the course, at the end of it, and one month later. The results showed that the two groups of course students showed higher mean ratings on the scale of recognition about staff of other professions at the end of the course than in the beginning of it. However, there were not statistically significant differences in the mean ratings on the other two scales neither among three groups nor among three time points of research. The results are discussed in relation to the characteristics of the subjects and the contents of the courses.