ABSTRACT

Interprofessional education (IPE) is an important aspect of learning that involves health and social professionals learning interactively together to be effective members of a multi-disciplinary team. The main aim of interprofessional education is to attain Interprofessional collaborative practice. However in Nigeria, there is little or no practice of IPE. Therefore, this study investigated the awareness, knowledge and perception of IPE by the clinical students and to examine the association and differences between awareness, knowledge and perception and gender.

This research involved a mixed method convergent parallel design of a Cross-Sectional Survey (CSSS) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The instruments used were: Questionnaire on awareness and knowledge and Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS), distributed to 291 clinical students for self-administration. The FGD involved 8 purposively selected clinical students. Data from the CSS was analyzed using Chi Square and Mann Whitney U test while content thematic analysis was done for the qualitative data.

Participants (124 males, 167 females) in the CSS were aged 23.3 ±2.1 years (range of 20-30 years. More than half (63.83%) of the participants that were aware had good knowledge. More than half of the participants (66.67%) had a positive perception of IPE. There was a significant association between participants’ knowledge and perception (p= 0.046) of IPE; There was a significant association between awareness and perception (p = 0.002) of IPE. There was no significant difference in knowledge of IPE between male and female participants (Mann–Whitney U =9780.0; p = 0.411) but there was a significant difference in perception of IPE between male and female participants (Mann–Whitney U =8558.5; p = 0.011).