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Autonomous motivation explains interprofessional education outcomes
Author(s) -
Ganotice Fraide A.,
Gill Harinder,
Fung John Tai Chun,
Wong Janet K. T.,
Tipoe George L.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/medu.14423
Subject(s) - psychology , autonomy , competence (human resources) , self determination theory , health care , interprofessional education , perception , pharmacy , perspective (graphical) , social psychology , medical education , applied psychology , nursing , medicine , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , political science , computer science , law , economics , economic growth
Objectives In response to the observations that interprofessional education (IPE) is seemingly atheoretical or under‐theorised, this quantitative research seeks to uncover students’ motivational mechanisms which could explain their behavioural and collaborative outcomes using self‐determination theory (SDT). While SDT has been studied in various contexts, its applicability to IPE remains underexplored. This study aims to integrate a new perspective in understanding students’ motivation in IPE by exploring how the fulfilment of a need for sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness is linked to desirable IPE outcomes. Methods Utilising quantitative methods, we involved 255 health care students in Hong Kong from the medical, nursing and pharmacy disciplines enrolled in IPE anticoagulation therapy module. They were invited to respond to the Psychological Need Satisfaction Questionnaire and other measures as part of the post‐test. Results Sense of autonomy emerged as the strongest positive predictor of behavioural (collective dedication, behavioural engagement) and collaboration outcomes (team effectiveness, goal achievement). There were no significant program‐level differences across these outcomes except for behavioural engagement for which nursing students had a higher perception than medicine students. Conclusions We were able to demonstrate that SDT is a meaningful framework in understanding behavioural and collaboration outcomes in IPE. The major theoretical contribution of this study refers to the ability of students’ motivation to explain variance in their behavioural outcomes. That is, sense of autonomy consistently predicted team effectiveness, collective dedication, behavioural engagement and goal achievement. Autonomous motivation among a sample of health care students can explain behavioural outcomes. Theoretical, methodological and practical implications are discussed.