The Brief Attitudes Survey for Interprofessional Collaborative Learning: The Design, Reliability, and Validation of a...

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Psychometrics
• Interprofessional Collaboration

Background:

• Assessing student attitudes is crucial for effective interprofessional education (IPE).
• Existing instruments may not adequately capture attitudes toward interprofessional collaborative learning.
• A validated tool is needed to measure attitudes within IPE settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a brief questionnaire to measure attitudes toward interprofessional collaborative learning among health professions students.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the new instrument.
• To provide a reliable tool for assessing learner progress in IPE.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and survey of existing instruments.
• Development of the 11-item Brief Attitudes Survey for Interprofessional Collaborative Learning (BASIC-L) based on behavior change theory.
• Psychometric analysis including reliability coefficients and Rasch analysis on data from medical and nursing students.

Main Results:

• The BASIC-L demonstrated strong reliability and validity.
• Rasch analysis confirmed a good fit with the proposed one-domain model.
• No significant sources of measurement error were identified.

Conclusions:

• The BASIC-L is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing attitudes toward interprofessional collaborative learning.
• It is suitable for use with health professions students, particularly within broader IPE assessment frameworks.
• The questionnaire can aid in evaluating the impact of interprofessional education initiatives.