Authors: Lestari, R. Stalmeijer, D. Widyandana*, A. Scherpbier
Introduction
Poor interprofessional relationships among health professions have been reported in the literature and to overcome this problem, an Interprofessional Education (IPE) has been suggested as a way to help remedy the situation. Concerning that, Faculty of medicine together with other faculties of health allied of Sultan Agung Islamic University Indonesia has prepared a program of community based IPE and a village of a rural area has been arranged for conducting the program. Therefore, this study aimed to explore medical students’ readiness for and perception toward IPE.
Methods
Final year students of medical programs of Sultan Agung Islamic University (n=240) were asked to complete the ‘Readiness for Interpofessional Learning (RIPL)’ (Parsel& Bligh, 1999) questionnaire. A focused group discussion (FGD) with students from low-moderate and high RIPL scored students was conducted to gain a more in depth understanding of the reasons behind the RIPL finding.
Summary of result
The results revealed that 208 out of 240 students took part the study. Among them, 63 (30.3%) students obtained low-moderate score of RIPL. Chi square analysis indicated that there was a correlation between students’ GPA and readiness for IPE (p=0.009). The FGD reported that those who have positive perception stated that sharing knowledge with other health professions in a team can solve patients’ problem quickly, they can learn from each other professions, health services should be done comprehensively, and roles and responsibility of each professions can be discussed in IPE classroom to limit role conflict. The disagree group stated that they were less confidence, IPE program should be given in clinical rather than in preclinical year and they were reluctant to the role conflict concerning health practice in Indonesia.
Conclusion
Majority of medical students’ has good readiness and positive perception toward Inter Profesional Education program. This readiness for IPE has a correlation with students’ GPA. Students’ perceptions toward IPE varies between positive and negative based on their responds to role conflict concerning health practice in Indonesia.
Keywords: IPE, medical students, perceptions, readiness
Accepted as poster presentation in The Network: Towards Unity for Health (TUFH) 2013, Thailand
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