Measuring the attitudes of healthcare faculty members towards interprofessional education in KSA

Objectives: Interprofessional Education (IPE), although well-understood in developed countries, is not uniformly perceived across developing countries. This study aimed to measure healthcare faculty attitudes towards IPE and to measure possible significant differences in demographic characteristics of faculty for their readiness to incorporate IPE in existing curricula. Methods: This simple-random sampling study was conducted by administering the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) to 200 randomly selected faculty members of health colleges of University of Dammam (UoD) and Taibah University (TU) KSA. The survey was conducted as a paper-based survey at UoD and online at TU. Results: The average score for all items (except one item) of the RIPLS were high (mean > 3.4). There were significant gender differences on issues related to the role of IPE in promoting students' understanding of their own professional limitations (p < 0.05) and on the need for healthcare students to learn together (p < 0.10). There were significant differences between faculty responses from UoD and TU with regard to their perceptions of IPE's role in fostering positive thinking about other healthcare professionals (p < 0.05) and their belief in the role of trust and respect among professions for successful outcomes (p < 0.10). Comparisons of faculty attitudes of different age groups towards IPE showed significant differences (0.000 <= p <= 0.09). Females and those aged 41 to 50 considered IPE more positively than their counterparts. Conclusion: This study showed favourable attitudes of healthcare faculty from both universities towards IPE. These encouraging findings might provide an impetus for potential engagement of faculty of the Saudi health colleges in the delivery of IPE when implemented.