The impact of an interprofessional standardized patient exercise on attitudes toward working in interprofessional teams

Effective interprofessional education engages participants in authentic tasks, settings and roles. Using these guiding principles, an interprofessional standardized patient exercise (ISPE) was developed and implemented for 101 dental, medical, nurse practitioner, pharmacy and physical therapy students. This study describes the ISPE and evaluates its impact on students' attitudes toward working in interprofessional teams. The attitudes toward health care teams (ATHCT) survey was administered pre- and post-ISPE and to a sample of non-participating students. Faculty and students were surveyed post-ISPE about outcomes and satisfaction. Focus groups were conducted with students from each profession. Students' attitudes toward team-based care improved significantly on the team value and team efficiency subscales of the ATHCT. There were significant differences in attitudes toward team-based care by profession. Faculty and student satisfaction with the ISPE was high. These findings contribute to the growing body of literature on efforts to generate positive attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration early in training, which may influence students' ability to be effective members of healthcare teams.