Are nursing professional values or attitudes toward patient safety related to undergraduate nursing students' readiness for interprofessional learning?

• Main Author: Wall, Cynthia L
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2016
• Subjects: Health education; Medical Ethics; Nursing
• ISBN: 1339823454; 9781339823454

The inclusion of interprofessional education in undergraduate healthcare student curriculum is an important element for successful interprofessional collaboration and quality outcomes for patients (IPEC, 2011). Nurse educators provide opportunities for undergraduate nursing students during clinical rotations, simulations, and service learning projects where students can participate in shared learning and collaboration with other professionals (Abu-Rish et al., 2012). Limited time and resources require that students be fully prepared to participate in interprofessional education (IPE). A cross-sectional correlational study was conducted to determine if content provided to undergraduate nursing students early in their curriculum was related to their readiness for interprofessional learning. In this study, 117 full-time undergraduate nursing students were surveyed using the Nurse Professional Values Scale – revised (NPVS-R), the Attitudes Toward Patient Safety Questionnaire (APSQ-II), and the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale – revised (RIPLSr). Pearson product moment correlation coefficients were run to determine if factors from the NPVS-R and the APSQ-II demonstrated a significant relationship to the factors from the RIPLSr. The factors from both the NPVS-R and APSQ-II were found to correlate with coefficients ranging from slight to strong (P<.05 and P<.001). There is moderate evidence to conclude that a relationship exists between professional values reported by undergraduate nursing students and their readiness for interprofessional learning. There is some evidence to indicate that a relationship exists between some aspects of attitudes toward patient safety and readiness toward interprofessional nursing. Recommendations are made for further study with larger sample sizes and in academic schools of nursing across several regions.