title: Effect of interprofessional clinical education programme length on students' attitudes towards teamwork.
abstract: This article reports on a study involving a range of health professions students who participated in similar one-semester (short) or two-semester (long) interprofessional clinical education programmes that focused on clinical assessment of senior citizens living independently in the community. Students' attitudes towards teamwork skills and perceptions of their own teamwork skills both before and after the programmes were assessed using two validated scales. Osteopathic medical student participants reported no significant changes in attitudes towards interprofessional healthcare teamwork skills or their perceptions of their own interprofessional teamwork skills after either the one- or two-semester programmes. For athletic training, speech-language pathology, exercise sciences, public health, and nursing students, though, attitudes towards teamwork skills significantly improved (p < .05) after the one-semester programme; and perceptions of their own team skills significantly improved (p < .05) after both the one- and two-semester programmes. Overall, this study provides some support for interprofessional teamwork attitude change, but with a significant difference between medical as compared to nursing, allied health, and public health students.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Science , Truman State University , Kirksville , Missouri , USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Renschler
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Science , Truman State University , Kirksville , Missouri , USA.
authors.forename: Darson
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Science , Truman State University , Kirksville , Missouri , USA.
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cox
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods; D006126:Group Processes; D006792:House Calls; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Attitudes; education; interprofessional education; interprofessional evaluation; programme length