The Impact of an Interprofessional Practice Experience on Readiness for Interprofessional Learning

Professional silos still exist in practice and education. At our institution, all medical students are exposed to an interprofessional (IP) practice experience during their family medicine clerkship. This study examines the impact of this IP practice experience on students' attitudes toward IP learning. In addition, this study examines the further impact on attitudes of a subset of students who were exposed to the IP practice experience integrated within an intentional IPE curriculum built to support and enhance experiential learning.

All students rotating through the IP practice experience were invited to participate. Only those who completed the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS), both pre-post were included in the analysis. Comparisons were made by school and by exposure to the integrated experiential model.

Out of 422, a total of 252 (59.7%) students completed both RIPLS pre-post. Analysis revealed statistically significant pre-post differences for all respondents for Teamwork and Patient-Centeredness. Medicine responses were less favorable for Teamwork and Professional Identity than nursing and pharmacy. For a subset of students exposed to the integrated experiential model, responses were more favorable for Teamwork, Professional Identity, and Patient-Centeredness compared to students without this exposure.

Attitudes toward Teamwork and Patient-Centeredness were more favorable for all respondents after exposure to the IP practice experience. Differences by school might be due to professional culture. Students exposed to the integrated experiential model had more favorable responses across all subscales than those not exposed. For the integrated experiential model to be deemed valuable, assessment of behavior change is warranted.