Student Perceptions of Interprofessional Valuing After a Tabletop Interprofessional Education Simulation

Context The focus of learning and working with professions outside of one's own is the essence of interprofessional education (IPE). Interprofessional education satisfies accreditation standards and is a high-impact teaching practice. Interprofessional education is often studied in nursing, medicine, and pharmacy; however, it has rarely been explored in athletic training. Objective To determine student perceptions of interprofessional valuing among a unique combination of disciplines. Design Survey. Setting Students were seated in interprofessional teams at round tables in a ballroom resembling a professional conference. Patients or Other Participants Forty prelicensure students participated in the tabletop simulation (athletic training = 12, dietetics = 9, nursing = 19). Of these participants, 36 completed the survey (athletic training = 9, dietetics = 8, nursing = 19). Main Outcome Measure(s) Student teams were given 2 cases and were prompted to discuss and complete accompanying tasks. Debriefing followed each case. Afterward, students were asked to complete the questionnaire. The Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale-24 (ISVS) was used to assess interprofessional beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Results The ISVS and factor means were near the top of the survey scale, indicating that students had positive perceptions of interprofessional roles and socialization. All disciplines reported strong beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors towards IPE. No significant differences on the ISVS or subscales were identified among the disciplines or between those with and without previous IPE experience. Analysis of items revealed low scores for athletic training students on being able to share and exchange ideas in a team discussion, an important interprofessional behavior. Conclusions A combination of factors including newness to IPE, fewer IPE experiences, and unequal ratios of professions represented in each group may explain why athletic training students reported more challenges with sharing and exchanging ideas. Conducting a tabletop IPE events may facilitate the development of interprofessional valuing and socialization.