Perceptions Of Senior Nursing Students Towards Interprofessional Collaboration Targeting Patient Care

Abstract

Interprofessional collaboration plays a significant role in the education of nursing students. In nursing school, students participate in a variety of clinical experiences that coincide with their theory classes. Clinical experiences also serve as a place for students to build their foundation on skills needed in the clinical field. Purpose: To investigate the means of interprofessional collaboration and the experiences of senior nursing students at Salem State University with interprofessional collaboration in the clinical setting. Methods: The study was conducted as a qualitative study amongst 178 senior nursing students in the Salem State Nursing Program. The ten-question survey is a modified version of the SPICE-R instrument, also known as the Students Perception of Physician-Pharmacist Interprofessional Clinical Education. In addition, an optional text box was added at the end of the survey for students to provide further comments about their clinical experiences. Results: Collected data was analyzed using SPSS. Of the possible 178 senior nursing students, 44 (25%) completed the survey. Seventy-five percent reported understanding what interprofessional collaboration. Of the 44 students, 52.3% strongly agree that working with another healthcare profession enhanced their education and 34.1% strongly agree they felt nursing students needed to more of a direct participant in interprofessional collaboration while learning to care for patients in clinical rotations. Of the 44 students, 40.9% agree clinical rotations were the ideal place within their respective curricula for health professional students to interact. Conclusion: Based on the feedback of the qualitative study, students also reported feeling satisfied with their clinical experiences in the past, in regards to their instructors and gaining clinical experience, especially an interest in preceptorship opportunities. With entry into professional nursing practice within the next year, senior nursing students also reported those with previous healthcare experience felt more involved with the interprofessional team than in clinical experiences. The results provided implications for nursing educators on understanding nursing students perceptions on interprofessional collaboration based on clinical experiences.