Design and Validation of a Questionnaire to Measure Interprofessional Collaborative Practice for Auditing Integrated...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Services Research
• Nursing and Allied Health Sciences

Background:

• Effective interprofessional teamwork is crucial for integrated hospital care delivery.
• Current methods for measuring interprofessional collaboration for auditing purposes are fragmented.
• A validated questionnaire is needed to assess collaborative practice in integrated care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a questionnaire to measure interprofessional collaborative practice in integrated hospital care.
• To provide a reliable tool for auditing and quality assurance of integrated care pathways.

Main Methods:

• A four-step iterative process including literature search, stakeholder interviews, and pretesting.
• Validation involved content and construct testing, responsiveness assessment, exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, item analysis, and linear mixed model analysis.
• The questionnaire was tested across eight integrated care pathways.

Main Results:

• The developed InterProfessional collaborative Practice for Integrated Hospital care (IPPIH) questionnaire consists of 27 items across five domains: own skills, culture, coordination and collaboration, practical support, and appreciation.
• Cronbach's alpha values ranged from 0.48 to 0.91, indicating varying levels of internal consistency.
• The intensity of self-reported collaboration within care pathways significantly impacted outcomes (P = .000).

Conclusions:

• The IPPIH questionnaire is a validated instrument for measuring the degree of interprofessional collaborative practice in integrated hospital care.
• Initially designed for quality assurance, the IPPIH can also serve as a self-assessment tool for directors to monitor and enhance interprofessional collaboration and integrated care quality.