New strategy in education of health professionals in Serbia: Analysis of students’ readiness for inter-professional education

SummaryIntroduction. Inter-professional education is the first step towards the effective collaborative practice of future health care workers and one of the prerequisites for the highest quality health care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the readiness for interprofessional education among medical science students. Material and Methods. The research was conducted as a descriptive cross sectional study by surveying 406 students of five study profiles at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Novi Sad. The Serbian version of The Readiness for Inter-professional Learning Scale and questionnaire on sociodemographic data were used as research instruments. The Readiness for Inter-professional Learning Scale comprises a total of 19 items grouped into two sub-scales: “team work, collaboration and shared learning” and “role and responsi -bilities”. The methods of descriptive and inferential statistics were used, and statistically significant values were considered significant at the p <0.05 level. Results. The mean the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale total score was 73.9, which indicates that students are generally ready for shared learning. The highest scores, that is, greater readiness for inter-professional learning was among physiotherapist students, female students and those who had previously completed secondary medical school. Medical students had significantly more negative attitudes towards this educational strategy. Conclusion. Despite the observed differences, attitudes of the majority of students in relation to all study profiles indicate their readiness to accept inter-professional education.