Health Professional Student Knowledge Assessment of Practice and Education: Where Are the Gaps in Interprofessional Health Education and Training?

This study aims to assess the knowledge held by health sciences students across nine health professional programs regarding the education, licensure, and clinical responsibilities of various health professions. Findings from this study could elucidate gaps in knowledge and contribute to proposed solutions to address these deficits in health sciences education and clinical training.Methods/methodology: The survey will be disseminated in December, with a reminder email sent two weeks later. Anonymized responses will be grouped first by degree program type and then by progress within the degree program. Significance will be determined using a mixed methods approach.Results: Results suggest that students learn most about other professions through "Work/volunteering/shadowing prior to starting my degree program." The smallest number of students indicated they learn about other professions "through research." When the participants were asked how they would prefer to learn about other professions the most popular response was "through clinical rotations." Full results, including participant accuracy in knowledge of the scope of practice of other professions, will be described in the presentation.Conclusions, implications, and curiosities: Considering that nearly half of the collected responses reported learning more about other health professions through university activities than during their didactic education, there is a clear need to enhance interprofessional education by fostering more in-person and interactive opportunities. Students overwhelmingly prefer engaging methods such as clinical rotations, group learning activities, and interprofessional initiatives to deepen their understanding of other disciplines. This highlights the importance of creating collaborative environments to support shared learning and teamwork. Additionally, the limited impact of research on students’ interprofessional knowledge suggests a need to explore innovative ways to integrate research opportunities that promote interprofessionalism in healthcare education