Interprofessional education and collaborative practice in Kuwait: attitudes and barriers from faculty
Maram Gamal Katoue, Abdelmoneim Awad, Alan Dow, Terry L. Schwinghammer
Abstract
Interprofessional education (IPE) has been adopted in many educational systems to prepare students in the health professions for team-based practice, but its implementation is still limited in many countries. In preparation for the introduction of IPE within Kuwait University Health Sciences Center, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to explore the attitudes of faculty members (academic staff/academic support staff) toward collaborative practice and IPE, their training needs, and perceived barriers to implementing IPE. Two hundred and ten individuals completed the survey (60% response rate). Respondents expressed positive attitudes toward interprofessional healthcare teams, IPE, and interprofessional learning in the academic setting (median [IQR] overall attitude for each scale was 4.0 [1.0] on a scale of 5). Overall attitudes were significantly more positive among assistant professors, females, and faculty members with ≤ 10 years of experience (p < .05). Most respondents (91.9%) indicated willingness to be trained to implement IPE, with small-group learning as the preferred teaching method (85.7%). A longitudinal curriculum was less popular than discrete IPE experiences. The top reported barriers to implementing IPE were leadership challenges (86.6%), curriculum challenges (82.4%), teaching challenges (81.4%), and resistance to change (80.5%). These findings have implications for developing strategies to engage faculty in effective IPE initiatives internationally.