Jill French

A pilot study evaluating an interprofessional education workshop for undergraduate health care students

Department of Physiotherapy, Monash University, Frankston, AustraliaINTRODUCTIONInterprofessional Education (IPE) is the process wherebystudents learn with, from and about other healthcareprofessions (Centre for the Advancement of Interprofes-sional Education, 1997). It is believed that IPE canpotentially improve job satisfaction, increase public appre-ciation of healthcare and promote enhanced holistic patientcare (Meads, Ashcroft, Barr, Scott, & Wild, 2005).To explore the inclusion of IPE into the undergraduatecurriculum of students enrolled in health-related disci-plines, six 1.5 h IPE workshops were designed as part of alarger effort to facilitate IPE provided to students at oneAustralian university. Each workshop was held during theend of semester teaching period between October andNovember 2009, and involved participants from a mini-mum of three different healthcare professions.The aim of each workshop was to introduce key IPEconcepts to students and assist them in developing the skillsand attitudes needed to become effective interprofessionalcollaborative practitioners. The pedagogical framework ofthe workshops and the formulation of educational activitieswas to be guided by six components: (1) patient-centredpractice, (2) interprofessional learning, (3) communicationskills, (4) team work and collaboration, (5) conflictresolution, (6) reflection (Oandasan & Reeves, 2005; TheCombined Universities Interprofessional Learning Unit,2005). The workshops were designed to include recom-mendations based on previous IPE studies, mainly that IPEbe taught in small groups where all disciplines are viewed asequal, and that the material presented is relevant to allfields, and based on real-life clinical problems (Parsell &Bligh, 1999).Each workshop, led by a non-medical facilitator (FM)and authors (BW, TB) focussed on one of three conditions:diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) or cellulitis. Each condition was presented as aDVD simulation (10 min in length) with the aim ofallowing students to develop an interprofessional andcollaborative team approach to that particular health carechallenge and development of a subsequent joint team plan.Following this, participants were involved in a range of IPE-orientated group activities, such as, ‘Talking Walls’ (Parsell,Gibbs, & Bligh, 1998) where participants were required toexplore one another’s training, roles and responsibilities andthen identify the similarities and differences among these.This report describes students’ attitudes towards IPEusing a questionnaire to elicit the student’s responses, whichimportantly adds to the emerging body of IPE knowledge.METHODSA cross-sectional methodology was used with a paper-basedquestionnaire administered to students to elicit theirthoughts regarding IPE immediately before, shortly afterand 6 months after the IPE workshop (e.g. Time 1, Time 2and Time 3).Undergraduate students enrolled in one of six health-related courses at Monash University: emergency health(paramedics), nursing, midwifery, occupational therapy,physiotherapy and nutrition and dietetics. All students whoparticipated in one of the IPE workshops were eligible toparticipate in the study (n¼62).The Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale(RIPLS) is a measure of students’ attitudes towardsengaging in IPE. It is a 19-item scale with three subscales,

The clinical teaching preference questionnaire (CTPQ): An exploratory factor analysis

BACKGROUND Peer assisted learning is growing internationally as a beneficial pedagogical strategy in health care and tertiary education. Therefore having instruments such as the Clinical Teaching Preference Questionnaire (CTPQ) with strong measurement properties to use in educational research is vital. OBJECTIVES To investigate the factor structure of the CTPQ when completed by a group of respondents from a large Australian university. METHODS Data from the CTPQ completed by first year undergraduate nurses were analysed with a factor analysis using a Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) with Oblique Oblimin rotation. FINDINGS A total of (n=265) first year undergraduate nursing students participated in the study. The vast majority of the participants were female 89% (n=236) and aged between 17 and 21 years of age 74% (n=197). Factor analysis of the 10 items revealed two factors with eigenvalues above 1, accounting for 68.3% of the total variance. Items with loadings greater than ± .30, with the factor in question, were used to characterise the factor solutions. CONCLUSIONS Findings from the exploratory factor analysis provide preliminary results that the CTPQ has adequate construct validity and reliability. This offers those involved in peer-assisted teaching and learning with a practical and usable instrument.

Measurement properties of a peer-teaching scale for nursing education.

Teaching is a key role for nurses in contemporary clinical practice. Consequently, peer-assisted learning continues to gather momentum in nursing education in tertiary and professional education settings. In this study, we investigated the factor structure of the Peer Teaching Experience Questionnaire when completed by a group of nursing undergraduates from a large Australian university. Data from the 14-item Peer Teaching Experience Questionnaire completed by third year undergraduate nursing students were analyzed using factor analysis. A total of 257 final (third)-year undergraduate nursing students participated in the study. Factor analysis of the 14 items revealed three factors with eigenvalues above 1, accounting for 47.3% of the total variance. Items with loadings greater than ± 0.40, with the factor in question, were used to characterize the factor solutions. Findings from the exploratory factor analysis provide preliminary results that the Peer Teaching Experience Questionnaire has adequate dimensionality and reliability.