Predilections of Allied Healthcare Professionals toward an Ideal Interprofessional Education Program via Conjoint Analysis

Abstract

To shape competent healthcare professionals, a working educational system that facilitates multiprofessional and interprofessional partnership should be in place to foster and deliver better outcomes efficiently, enhancing the quality of healthcare education. Interprofessional Education (IPE) is learning and teaching approach where two or more healthcare professions learn with, from, and about each other. To meet the objective, academic reform that encompasses silos and profession centrism has to be instituted. This study delved into the proclivity of medical and paramedical professionals towards a curricular program that concretizes and strengthens interprofessional collaboration in practice via Conjoint Analysis. Orthogonal Array was employed to elucidate validity and applicability of the five attributes namely Content, Participants, Setting, Teaching Methods, and Format. One hundred allied healthcare professionals representing 25 countries from three international universities participated in the study. Results revealed that setting was the major factor considered when choosing an IPE program with a relative importance of 43.7%.  It was followed by content with a relative importance of 15.8%.  Trailing behind were teaching methods (14.5%) and participants (13.1%), respectively. The stakeholders’ perspectives will serve as a benchmark for a program to be implemented on the Philippine context in line with the ASEAN integration which is currently being embraced.