Attitudes toward inter-professional healthcare teams: A comparison between 1st year and 3rd year students at Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences

<p>Azjargal Baatar, Oyuntsetseg S, T Makino, H Shinozaki and Sumberzul N</p>

Attitudes toward inter-professional healthcare teams: A comparison between 1st year and 3rd year students at Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences

Azjargal Baatar, Oyuntsetseg S, T Makino, H Shinozaki and Sumberzul N

Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Mongolia

: J Nurs Patient Care

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to describe attitudes toward inter-professional education in Mongolia National University of Medical Sciences. Methods: Cross-sectional study, Heinemann, et al. developed the Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale (ATHCTS, 21-item instrument), which has potential for evaluating clinically based team training programs as well as use a pre and post-test tool for educational interventions with teams. A 14 item instrument in which items containing the word physician have been removed from the original instrument is a modified version adapted by Curran, et al. to measure attitudes towards health care teams. Results: In total, 249 grade-1 and 243 grade-3 undergraduate students participated in the study, respectively. Response rates by academic units of the undergraduate students were NS 88.3% (n=223), MD 39.0% (n=193), PT 53.8% (n=29) and LS 42.0% (n=47), respectively. Comparisons using the Mann-Whitney test indicated that in mean scores of seven items, item 1 (3.83±1.169 vs. 4.38±0.854, P<0.0001), item 3 (3.97±1.167 vs. 4.43±0.702, p<0.05), item 4 (3.99±1.163 vs. 4.61±0.62, P<0.0001), item 13 (3.5±1.164 vs. 4.11±0.946, P<0.001), 1st year students showed significantly lower scores than 3rd year undergraduate students. Conclusion: The present results showed that students possessed more positive attitudes toward IPE than 1 year’s undergraduate students, suggesting that exposure to clinical practice may result in withdrawal of the attitudes toward healthcare teams.