Exploring Incoming Students’ Readiness for Interprofessional Education: A 4-year Cross-sectional Analyses with Q-methodology

Interprofessional collaboration is an essential component of patient-centered care and students in health professional programs must participate in interprofessional education (IPE) training to prepare for future practice. However, there is limited research to explore the differences in students’ perceptions about IPE readiness across cohorts and programs. This study evaluated IPE readiness in a subgroup of incoming first year students in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS), McMaster University from 2019 to 2022.Methods/methodology: First year students in the FHS were invited and randomly allocated to complete the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) using Q-methodology. Students were instructed to order 19 RIPLS statements on a Q-sort table with a scale ranging from -3 (strongly disagree) to +3 (strongly agree). Participants’ characteristics were reported, and Q-sort data was analyzed using by-person factor analysis to identify factors (i.e., groups of similarly rated Q-sorts). The research team subjectively labelled factors based on the distinguishing statements of each factor.Results: A total of 1040 students were invited and 323 (31%) responded. 305 students (94%; mean age 21.5 [SD=3.9] years) loaded into two factors: 1) Patient-focused learners (n=164); and 2) Self-focused learners (n=141). Participants loaded into the Patient-focused factor were older (mean age=22.0 [3.6] years) than students in the Self-focused factor (mean age= 20.9 [4 .1] years (p=0.01). There were statistically significant differences across factors for program type (professional vs. general; p≤0.001), degree (undergraduate vs. graduate; p≤0.001), but no differences for gender (p=0.19).Conclusions, implications, and curiosities: Two factors were identified among incoming FHS students from 2019 to 2022, each with its own IPE values. Differences in IPE values may be related to the students’ age, program, and degree. These results provide an impression of incoming students’ perception of IPE and considerations for future IPE curricula.

Acknowledgement: Noori Akhtar-Danesh