Knowledge, attitudes and practices of final-year health sciences students regarding interprofessional education at a tertiary institution in South Africa

Abstract

Background. Interprofessional education (IPE) has been identified as a means of improving the readiness of health sciences students for interprofessional collaborative practice and promoting effective, patient-centred care. To prepare future healthcare professionals for interprofessional collaboration, academic leaders at health professions institutions recommend integrating IPE into the training of health sciences students. Objectives. To assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of final-year undergraduate health sciences students regarding IPE at a single institution in Gauteng, South Africa. Method. A descriptive quantitative study was conducted among final-year health sciences students during the 2022 and 2023 academic years. A validated, self-administered Likert-scale questionnaire was used to collect data online and included three open-ended questions to provide additional context. There was an estimated total of 327 final-year students, and a minimum sample size of 177 was required. Purposive sampling was used to select students from eight health science programmes. Results. Of the 327 distributed questionnaires, 177 were returned, giving a response rate of 54%. The overall mean (standard deviation) age was 24 (4.1) years. More than half of the participants (60%) indicated that they have prior experience of IPE. The Likert-scale questions showed that the majority had good knowledge (97.7%), attitudes (88.1%) and practices (75.7%) regarding IPE. The themes arising from the narrative responses to the open-ended questions revealed self-perceived benefits of IPE (e.g. understanding other students’ roles), barriers (e.g. timetable clashes) and opportunities to improve IPE (e.g. a need for planned and co-ordinated IPE activities). Conclusions. The findings revealed that participants had good knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding IPE. However, challenges such as limited exposure to other healthcare programmes, timetabling constraints and a lack of co-ordinated IPE activities should be addressed to inform future IPE practice.