Comparison of medical and nursing students’ readiness for interprofessional education in the surgical department

Introduction: Interprofessional Education (IPE) is concentrating on the expansion of suitable communication and a teamwork setting for all healthcare providers to conduct patient care well. This study was conducted with the aim of examining the readiness of medical and nursing students for IPE in the surgery department. Methods: This descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted on 42 nursing and medical students at Birjand University of Medical Sciences (2022) in Iran who were included in the study by the census. The Persian version of RIPLS (The Readiness for Inter-Professional Learning Scale) was used to collect data. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and analytic statistics and the Mann–Whitney U test (P≤0.05). Results: Totally mean score for RIPLS was (85.81±5.33). Comparisons of the mean scores in the roles and responsibilities subscale between the discipline (P=0.041) and gender (P=0.034) of students showed significant differences. But the mean scores in the other subscales as well as the total mean score of RIPLS did not show a significant difference between nursing and medical students (P 0.05). Conclusions: Nursing and medical students were highly ready for IPE. It is suitable that before the start of IPE, educational workshops have been conducted to learn interprofessional principles, and also recommended the use of IPE in the official curriculum.