Interprofessional identity and motivation towards interprofessional collaboration.

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Psychology
• Teamwork and Collaboration

Background:

• Interprofessional identity's role in explaining interprofessional behaviors remains unclear.
• Extended professional identity theory integrates psychological identity approaches.
• This study explores interprofessional identity as a motivator for interprofessional collaboration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if interprofessional identity drives intrinsic motivation for interprofessional collaboration.
• To examine the link between interprofessional identity and collaborative behaviors in students.
• To understand the relationship between group membership and interprofessional collaboration.

Main Methods:

• 47 dentistry and 41 dental hygiene students without prior interprofessional education (IPE) experience participated.
• The Extended Professional Identity Scale (EPIS) measured interprofessional identity.
• Students were assigned to low or high interprofessional identity groups to assess group effort and communication.

Main Results:

• Groups with high interprofessional identity generated more solutions (91.5%) than low identity groups (86.4%).
• A significant positive correlation was found between individual interprofessional identity and group effort (r=0.22, p=0.036).
• High interprofessional identity groups demonstrated greater interprofessional direction in communication (p=0.034).

Conclusions:

• Interprofessional identity positively impacts interprofessional behaviors.
• Further research is needed to fully understand interprofessional identity's influence on performance in educational and professional contexts.