Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Perceptions of Interprofessional Education

Abstract

Engagement in interprofessional collaborative practice is critical for communication disorders professionals to provide quality clinical services. Given limited research on implementation of interprofessional education (IPE) within communication disorders pre-professional training programs and research highlighting potential barriers to implementation of IPE, this investigation assessed communication sciences and disorders (CSD) faculty attitudes toward IPE. One hundred fifty-eight CSD faculty from accredited CSD graduate programs completed the Interprofessional Attitudes Scale (Norris, Carpenter, Eaton, Guo, Lassche, Pett, & Blumenthal, 2016). Collectively, the faculty supported CSD students learning from and with students from different disciplines and endorsed IPE as beneficial. Faculty with master’s degrees were more likely to believe that IPE would increase student’s effectiveness as clinical care team members, whereas more faculty with research doctorates indicated that biases toward other professionals could get in the way of providing intervention. Compared to faculty in colleges other than health sciences, faculty in colleges of health sciences reported experiencing more bias toward and from professionals of other disciplines. Despite group differences, a majority of CSD faculty overwhelmingly favored IPE for students suggesting that the attitudes of CSD faculty toward IPE may not be a barrier to implementation of IPE within pre-professional training programs.