Attitudes toward interprofessional education improve over time

Background: For health care providers to fully contribute to interprofessional teams, training should be embedded within health care education curriculum. Yet barriers may hinder successful interprofessional education. Purpose: Determine if learner attitudes toward IPE change over time and with clinical experience. Method: Nebraska Interprofessional Attitudes Scale (NIPEAS) administered prior to student orientation IPE (baseline) and after year 2 IPE events. Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess change over time for the sample, and mixed method ANOVA to determine if change differed by college. Results: 175 students (five colleges) completed baseline and follow-up surveys. Aggregate NIPEAS scores were significantly higher on follow-up (p < 0.001). Repeated measures t-tests examining change by college revealed that scores increased significantly in Colleges of Medicine (p < 0.001), Allied Health (p = 0.04), and Pharmacy (p = 0.005). Discussion/Conclusions: Results indicated improved attitudes about IPE differing from previous studies; perhaps the result of NIPEAS design for use in longitudinal studies.