Suitability of the RIPLS and IEPS for Discriminating Attitude Differences towards Interprofessional Education among Students of Healthcare Profession

Abstract

Background . Interprofessional education provides students of healthcare programme an opportunity to collaborate with students from other disciplines and help them to get a training prior to entering the healthcare workforce. This study may help to select a suitable tool to discriminate attitude differences of healthcare professional students towards interprofessional education. Methods . A study, which was cross-sectional, was conducted at a private university in Malaysia to explore the two scales (RIPLS and IEPS) and their psychometric properties. Study participants comprised students from four different professions with at least one exposure or no previous exposure to IPE. Results . Both the scales (RIPLS and IEPS) have their own ability to detect differences in students’ attitude towards IPE in their own way. However, the IEPS scale was able to detect differences within the gender, professions (both junior and senior students), and prior exposure to IPE. Conclusions . This study revealed that though both scales can be used to follow the impact of IPE in curricula, IEPS scale is more suitable than RIPLS to discriminate attitude differences among healthcare students. Educators may develop various strategies to observe students’ behaviours and perceptions qualitatively and conduct longitudinal study to assess the outcomes of including IPE in curricula.