Australian osteopathic students' perceptions of interprofessional relationships

Background: Interprofessional education is increasingly included in health profession education programs as governments strive to improve patient care and outcomes through interprofessional teams. Objective: To investigate Australian osteopathy students perceptions of interprofessional relationships. Design: Single administration of a questionnaire to students explore perceptions of interprofessional relationships. Setting: Two Australian university-based osteopathy programs. Methods: Students completed the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) and a demographic questionnaire. Descriptive data were generated for each of the IEPS items, total and factor scores. Ordinal logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between the IEPS items and the demographic variables: age; gender; university; and year level. Cronbach's alpha was calculated as the reliability estimate. Participants: Students enrolled in the osteopathy programs at Victoria University (Melbourne, Australia) and Southern Cross University (Lismore, Australia). Results: Responses from 319 students were analysed (63% response rate). The mean total IEPS score was 246.46 (+/- 23.79). No association was observed for the demographic variables and eleven of the IEPS items in the regression models. Moderate odds ratios were observed for year 3 students in relation to their perception of autonomy and respect, where these perceptions were less positive compared to students in other year levels. Age, gender and university were significant in the regression models for other IEPS items however these odds ratios were either trivial or small. Cronbach's alpha was 0.818 indicating an acceptable internal structure for the 18 -item IEPS. Conclusions: The perception of Australian osteopathy students towards interprofessional relationships was largely positive, and not associated with demographics such as age, gender, program year level and the university they were attending. Students identified positive aspects such as the need to cooperate with other professions and that osteopaths are well trained. Where demographics were associated with an IEPS item, the odds ratio was typically trivial to small. Aspects that may also need to be improved were identified, including the students' perception of the status of osteopathy in the eyes of other health professions. The data from the present study could be used to inform the development of interprofessional programs involving osteopaths and osteopathy students. Further work to replicate the results of the present study is required. Crown Copyright (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.