Retrospective Assessment Utilizing the Interprofessional Attitudes Scale (IPAS) on an Intentional Interprofessional Learning Activity Involving Pharmacy and Dental Students

Background
While new models of intentional interprofessional education activities continue to be developed, delivering high quality interprofessional experiential education remains a challenge. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Standard 25.6 requires schools of pharmacy to assess the preparedness of all students to function effectively and professionally on an interprofessional healthcare team, but minimal guidance is provided on assessment methods or tools to achieve this outcome.
Design
A total of four (4) intentional interprofessional activities were developed for the 4th year pharmacy and 2nd year dental students at a partnering university. Due to the pandemic, the IPE activities were delivered virtually through Zoom. Each activity was designed as a case conference focusing on a pre-determined clinical topic. The IPAS consists of 27 items in five (5) sub-scales: Teamwork, Roles, and Responsibilities; Patient-Centeredness; Interprofessional Biases; Diversity & Ethics; and Community-Centeredness. It is one of the first scales designed to assess attitudes. Participating students were assessed using the IPAS before and after each activity.
Results
Pre-survey summarized submissions consisted of 45 pharmacy students, and post-survey submissions are an aggregate of 54 pharmacy student responses. Agreement that shared learning will help students think positively about other professions had the most significant change comparing pre vs post surveys (10% increase in agreement). All 5 questions related to patient-centeredness had 5% or more growth in agreement for the pre-activity vs post-activity. Of the 27 questions, 22 pre-activity questions had 90% or more agreement from responders.
Conclusion
Fourth year pharmacy students rated themselves high on the pre IPAS assessment (somewhat to strongly agree). There is a need to explore a different assessment tool to more effectively be able to capture changes of attitudes before and after a given activity.

Reflections and Lessons learned
Finding the right assessment tool to measure changes in attitudes can be challenging and as the results show, a trial and error approach is often used before identifying a tool that can meet ACPE Standard 25.6.