Dissecting first-year students' perceptions of health profession groups: potential barriers to interprofessional education.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that health profession students enter interprofessional education (IPE) programs with negative perceptions of health disciplines other than their own, which could serve as possible barriers to engagement with interprofessional principles. Yet, past studies have not fully dissected these perceptions, nor have they examined how these perceptions may contrast with how students view their own future profession. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A total of 638 students from six different health profession training programs completed surveys assessing their perceptions/stereotypes of their own and other health professions. ANOVA and MANCOVA analyses showed a high degree of variability in how each profession is perceived by the students, but that the students, regardless of discipline (except medical students), rated their own profession the highest on almost every attribute listed. CONCLUSIONS: The data provide evidence for the tenets of Social Identity Theory raised in the relevant literature. The authors also suggest that the lack of adequately formulated "professional-in-training" identity, as well as the formidability of anticipatory socialization, help to foster and perpetuate these stereotypes and that IPE programs have the potential to exacerbate these negative perceptions. J Allied Health 2013; 42(4):202-213.TEAM-BASED, COLLABORATIVE CARE has been argued to improve patient outcomes and foster safer and more effective (i.e., patient outcomes and costs) health care.1-3 A key component to efficient interprofessional team-based health care delivery is the dissolution of the traditional hierarchical structure nested within the culture of health care delivery.4,5 Despite the overwhelming literature regarding the positive effects and benefits of team-based care, not only for the patient but also for health care professionals, there is evidence to suggest that health care professionals maintain and even exhibit negative perceptions and stereotypes of each other, especially regarding clinical knowledge and ability.6-9 Such attitudes when exercised in the health care setting could negate the potential positive elements of interprofessional care and even prevent effective delivery teams from developing.10,11To promote the qualities and practices of collaborative care within the next generation of health care professionals, a number of health profession education institutions have constructed and implemented elaborate, multi-year interprofessional education (IPE) programs aimed at bringing together students from multiple health care disciplines during their years of training to increase patient-centeredness, develop a team approach, foster communication and respect among the various health professions, promote an understanding of each others' roles, and breakdown the hierarchy within health care delivery.12 However, despite the increasing awareness and momentum of IPE and continued development and inclusion of IPE programs into the curriculum of various health professions, previous studies have spotlighted the existence and resiliency of negative stereotypes of health disciplines that are also held and exercised among students.Education and training are significant mechanisms of the socialization and professionalization of health profession students,13,14 and although studies have shown that IPE programs can indeed have a positive impact on how students perceive the abilities and attributes of other health professions,7,15-19 there is also evidence that suggests IPE programs have little to no effect on altering students' attitudes and perceptions of the abilities and attributes of health professions. Nisbet et al. noted that their designed interprofessional learning (IPL) program was "not entirely successful"20(p66) in breaking down negative stereotypes, in that some students maintained negative attitudes towards particular professions despite their immersion in the program. Similarly, Tunstall-Pedoe, Rink, and Hilton21 suggested that the students' stereotypes of each profession featured in their sample (medicine, nursing, and allied health) may have actually become more exaggerated during an interprofessional program. …