Perception on Interprofessional Learning Among Health Science Undergraduate Students of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Interprofesion learning (IPL) occurs when students from two or more different professionals study with and learn about different professions. IPL is believed to enhance the collaboration level within the different profession after graduated. The objective of this research is to compare perception levels among the respondents coming from eleven different professions including Medical, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Occupational Therapy, Dietetics, Audiology, Speech Science, Physiotherapy, Optometry and Diagnostic Imaging Radiotherapy. Each respondent were selected randomly representing each year of study for each profession. They were required to fill up the survey form provided. 330 survey forms were returned instead of 367 distributed copies or 90% from overall surveys. Using one-way ANOVA analysis, all professions indicate same level of perception in knowledge subscale (p = 0.11), the practice of teamwork and cooperation (p = 0.23) and various methods to start the IPL (p = 0.61). However, for professional identity subscales and interprofession educational preparation the value was (p 0.05). Post-hoc Turkey test, indicated Physiotherapy students had a higher average score (M = 4.35 ± 0.54) compared to Speech Science (M = 3.75 ± 0.59) in professional identity subscale whereas in students preparation subscale for interprofession education, only Physiotherapy students had higher score (M = 4.15 ± 0.82) in comparison to Diagnostic Imaging Radiotherapy (M = 3.25 ± 0.83). Besides, independent T test showedthe students were in favour of having IPL in early year of education with the average score (M = 3.53 ± 1.029) for year one and year two compared to year three to fi ve (M = 3.34 ± 1.089). The result form this research shows that the students have a positive perception towards IPL based on the average values not more than 3.0.