Indonesian pharmacists' and pharmacy students' attitudes towards collaboration with physicians

Medical and Pharmacy Students’ Attitudes Towards Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration in Indonesia: A Case Study Approach

Learning process evaluation of Interprofessional Education (IPE) was crucial to determine the implementation process’s success. The evaluation can be done by researching student attitudes in IPE activities. Research on students' attitudes in medical education and pharmacy study programs is expected to be a guideline for the IPE curriculum drafting team at the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Islam Sultan Agung, Semarang, to develop future IPE learning activities. The study design was observational analytic with a cross-sectional method involving all medical and pharmacy students of the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Islam Sultan Agung who had participated in a Small Group Discussion with TB management and met the inclusion criteria. Data collection was carried out in August 2020 using an online google form questionnaire. Data obtained through the Scale of Attitudes Toward Psychic-Pharmacist Collaboration questionnaire contains 16 questions tested for validity and reliability. Questions were answered using a 4-point Likert Scale. The statistical test analysis results on the total score of the collaboration attitude scale using the Mann Whitney Test was a p-value of 0.000. The median total score of medical and pharmacy students was 47.00 and 56.00, respectively. The p-value indicates a significant difference between the total scores of medical and pharmacy students. Based on the analysis results, the study shows significant differences in collaboration attitudes. Medical education students fall into the "moderate" category and pharmacy students in the "high" category. The pharmacy students have a more positive collaboration attitude than medical education students toward future collaborative relationships.

Developing a Japanese version of the 'scale of attitudes toward pharmacist-physician collaboration'

There are many reports that pharmacotherapy has been optimized to ensure collaboration between physicians and pharmacists. Various scales assess the relationship between physicians and pharmacists as well as medical students and pharmacy students. The Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration (SATP²C) can be applied not only to the physician-pharmacist relationship but also to the medical-pharmacy student relationship. As there is no Japanese version of the SATP²C, we developed one and examined its psychometric properties. SATP²C scores were measured before and after interprofessional education (IPE) to verify responsiveness. The scale showed confirmed reliability: Cronbach's alphas were 0.79 for Responsibility and Accountability, 0.68 for Shared Authority, and 0.67 for Interdisciplinary Education. Pre and post-IPE, each mean subscale score increased: Responsibility and Accountability, 0.7 ± 0.4; Shared Authority, 0.2 ± 0.3; and Interdisciplinary Education, 0.3 ± 0.2. Although the total score increased (1.2 ± 0.7), this was non-significant. The Japanese version of the SATP²C can be considered, at least initially, to have reached an acceptable level of reliability and validity. The new measure is currently the only scale in Japan that can evaluate attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration regarding IPE. Further studies are needed to confirm responsiveness pre- and post-IPE.