Interprofessional Education (IPE) Opportunities and Attitudes Among Counselling Psychology Students in Canada

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE) is an international initiative set out to teach healthcare students how to effectively work together after graduation. The success of IPE largely depends on students’ attitudes towards interprofessional learning and perceptions of healthcare professions, which are assessed before entering IPE. Little is known about the attitudes and perceptions of students in mental and social health sciences. This study aimed to examine the attitudes and perceptions of counselling psychology students and contribute to the growing body of literature on mental health students’ attitudes towards IPE. Graduate level counselling psychology students (N = 77) from three Canadian universities completed an online questionnaire that included the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS; McFadyen et al., 2005; Parsell & Bligh, 1999) and the Student Stereotype Rating Questionnaire (SSRQ; Barnes et al., 2000; Hean et al., 2006a). Counselling psychology students’ overall RIPLS scores (M = 82.97, SD = 7.57) indicates a high readiness to learn. Counselling psychology students’ overall SSRQ scores assigned to their own profession (M = 37.85, SD = 4.20) and other professionals, including medical doctors (M = 35.31, SD = 4.04), nurses (M = 36.60, SD = 4.36), social workers (M = 33.68, SD = 5.35), and occupational therapists (M = 35.70, SD = 4.56), suggest that students hold positive stereotypes across these different professions. Counselling psychology students’ RIPLS and SSRQ scores were comparable to, if not greater than, the RIPLS and SSRQ scores reported in previous studies involving other healthcare students. Findings from this study advocate for the inclusion of counselling psychology students in IPE programs in Canadian universities. Future implications and recommendations for healthcare education among counselling psychology students are presented.