Preparation of Medical, Paramedical and Nursing Students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences for Inter-Professional Education in 2018

Background: Interpersonal education is one of the new educational patterns that improve the quality of patient care and services by increasing collaboration. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the readiness of medical, paramedical and nursing students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences for interpersonal training and the identification of its related factors. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2018. The study population consisted of undergraduate nursing students, operation room and anesthesiologists and medical students who were finishing their internship. Also, using an unpredictable sampling method (available) based on previous studies, a total of 220 individuals were enrolled in the bachelor's theses and 130 were considered for the doctoral degree. In this research, data was collected from the standard questionnaire including 19 questions in professional preparedness assessment (RIPLS). Results: The analysis of 350 completed questionnaires in this study showed that the mean age of the participants was 22.5 years and 44.3% of the participants were men. The average score of nursing students' readiness in medical university of Mazandaran for interpersonal learning, the average score for operation room and anesthesia students and the average for medical students, were 1.52, 1.92 and 1.00, respectively. The standard deviation of students' grades was 0.5, 0.26 and 0.49, respectively. The relationship between students' readiness for interpersonal learning with the variable of gender and age and marital status was not significant between student readiness, but there was a significant relationship between academic level and students' readiness. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that students in all three groups had higher level of preparedness than the average level. This will enable educational planners and managers to take step the development of inter-professional education and the improvement of provision of health care and services with less constraints and considering the influencing factors.