Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare (Apr 2023)
Readiness for Interprofessional Education Among Health Profession Students in a University in the United Arab Emirates
Abstract
Haya Yasin,1,2 Subish Palaian,3,4 Pathiyil Ravi Shankar,5 Sridevi Nallamilli6 1Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 2Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; 3Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 4Center of Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 5IMU Centre for Education, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 6Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Bagmati Province, NepalCorrespondence: Haya Yasin, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates, Tel +971557176919, Email [email protected] Subish Palaian, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates, Tel +971551322957, Email [email protected]: Inter-Professional Education (IPE) is an educational engagement between students from two or more professions possibly leading to better collaboration among them in the future workplace. Several organizations have advocated, developed, and updated guidelines for IPE.Objective: This study was aimed at assessing the medical, dental, and pharmacy students’ readiness toward interprofessional education (IPE), and to identify the association between readiness and the demographic profile of students in a university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based exploratory study involving 215 medical, dental, and pharmacy students at Ajman University, UAE, using convenience sampling. The survey questionnaire (Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale, RIPLS) had a total of 19 statements. The first 9 items were related to “teamwork and collaboration”, items 10– 16 were related to “professional identity”, and the remaining three (items 17– 19) were related to “roles and responsibilities”. The individual statements’ median (IQR) scores were calculated and the total scores were compared with the demographic characteristics of the respondents with suitable non-parametric tests at alpha=0.05.Results: Altogether, 215 undergraduate students (medical (n= 35)), pharmacy (n=105), and dental (n=75) responded to the survey. The median (IQR) score for the 19 individual statements was ‘ 5 (4– 5)’ for 12 of the statements. The total scores and domain-specific scores (teamwork and collaboration, professional identity, and roles and responsibilities) according to respondents’ demography showed significant differences only in the case of the educational stream with professional identity score (p=< 0.001), and the total RIPLS score (p=0.024). Further, post hoc pairwise comparison showed a significant difference between medicine-pharmacy (p< 0.001), and dentistry-medicine (p=0.009), for professional identity, and medicine-pharmacy (p=0.020) for the total RIPLS score.Conclusion: A high readiness score among students offers the possibility of conducting IPE modules. A favorable attitude can be considered by curriculum planners while initiating IPE sessions.Keywords: dental, interprofessional education, medical, pharmacy, teamwork, United Arab Emirates
