Waters, N, Keddy, J., Phelan, D., O’Mahoney, M. and McMahon, S. (2013) The Effect of Clinical Placement on Students’ Attitudes towards Interprofessional Learning, Interprofessional Interaction and Communication skills. In: 6th scientific meeting of the Irish Network of Medical Educators (INMED), 21st February to Friday 22nd February 2013, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Background The effect of university-based Interprofessional Learning (IPL) activities has been shown to have a positive influence on attitudes of healthcare students (medical, physiotherapy, nursing etc) towards future interprofessional working. Hospital-based IPL has also been investigated in some countries and shown to be equally beneficial. Currently in the Republic of Ireland, anecdotal evidence suggests that there little interaction between healthcare students while on clinical placement. AIM The aim of this study was to investigate whether clinical placement has a positive or negative effect on the attitudes of physiotherapy students towards interprofessional working. METHODOLOGY Permission was sought and granted from the University of West England (UWE) to use the UWE Interprofessional Questionnaire. This questionnaire was designed to explore health and social care students’ attitudes to IPL, interprofessional interaction and communication skills (Pollard and Miers, 2008). The questionnaire was distributed to 34 stage 3 physiotherapy students, in the first and final week of a sixteen week clinical placement block. RESULTS Of the three scales in the UWE IPL questionnaire, only one, the Interprofessional Interaction Scale, showed a statistically significant change: students’ perceptions of interprofessional interaction were significantly more negative, by the end of the placement block (P=0.04). DISCUSSION The results of this study indicate that clinical placement experience may have a negative effect on physiotherapy students’ attitudes towards interprofessional interaction. Possible reasons and solutions for this are suggested. CONCLUSION Further research is required to investigate whether a formal interprofessional workshop for healthcare students carried out during clinical placement blocks, improves the students’ attitudes towards interprofessional interaction. The workshop could take the form of a patient-centred discharge planning meeting
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