Interprofessional attitudes and perceptions: Results from a longitudinal controlled trial of pre-registration health and social care students in Scotland

This study made use of a controlled longitudinal design to assess the impact on pre-registration health and social care students of an interprofessional intervention on the attitudes to and perceptions of interprofessional ideals. Evaluation, over four years, of Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Podiatry, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Physiotherapy and Radiography students was performed using the adapted versions of the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS). Baseline samples of the control and experimental groups were 260 and 313 respectively. Support for Interprofessional Education (IPE) appears high but possibly idealistically so initially. Restricted Maximum Likelihood (REML) models were used to assess intervention effects as well as any possible profession or time effects. The intervention was found to have had a significant effect on five of the measured sub-scales and the professions were found to react in a significantly different way on four of the sub-scales. The inclusion of a control group has confirmed previous findings from other studies but also highlights the possible effects of the general learning and teaching methodologies employed within various professions as well as the need for research into the influence of the timing, duration, style and content of clinical placement periods.