Perception of interprofessional education among students following pharmacy studies

Abstract

Introduction: Interprofessional Education (IPE) activities are a first experience of real-world patient care practice for students, where collaboration with different professions is appreciated. Methods and timing of inclusion of IPE are not well-defined, and it is interesting to assess students’ perception on IPE activities.

Objective: To assess changes in pharmacy students’ perception of IPE before (t0) and after (t1) an IPE activity.

Methods: The ‘Student Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education–Revised 2’ (SPICE-R2) tool was adopted to assess perception of IPE activities in third year pharmacy students, final year pharmacy students and in postgraduate Doctorate in Pharmacy (PharmD) students at t0 and t1.

Results: The SPICE-R2 tool was completed at t0 and t1 by 61 students: 12 third year pharmacy students, 13 final year students and 36 PharmD students. A significant improvement between t0 and t1 (P < .05) was measured in the three groups of students for all three subscales of the tool. The largest improvement was observed in the ‘Roles/Responsibilities for Collaborative Practice’ subscale in all three groups of students.

Conclusion: Perception of IPE was positively increased in all three student groups. The results could be useful to support the design of IPE activities within pharmacy programmes.