Validation of an instrument to measure pharmacy and medical students' attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the validity and reliability of an instrument to measure pharmacy students' attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration, and compare those attitudes to the attitudes of medical students.

Methods: One hundred sixty-six first-year pharmacy students and 77 first-year medical students at Midwestern University completed the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration.

Results: Findings confirmed the validity and reliability of the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration in pharmacy students, as observed previously for medical students. Pharmacy students' mean score was significantly higher (56.6 ± 7.2) than that of medical students (52.0 ± 6.1). Maximum likelihood factoring confirmed the 3-factor solution of responsibility and accountability, shared authority, and interdisciplinary education for pharmacy students.

Conclusions: The Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration can be used for the assessment of interdisciplinary educational programs, for patient outcome assessment of interprofessional collaboration, and for group comparisons. Findings that pharmacy students expressed more positive attitudes toward collaboration than medical students have implications for interdisciplinary education.

Keywords: attitudes; health professions students; interprofessional collaboration; interprofessional education; psychometrics; reliability; validity.