Professors Imogen Taylor and Suzy Braye

1. Symposium: Evaluating Outcomes in Social Work Education University of SussexPartnership and Interprofessional Practice. ProfessorsImogen Taylor and Suzy Braye SWAP with Social Care Institute for Excellence, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services and the University of Bristol

2. Partnership and Interprofessional Practice (PIP) Does pre-placement classroom-based teaching in Partnership and Interprofessional Practice (PIP) change student’s attitudes to and perceptions of working in partnership with other social care, education and health professions?

3. Sussex Partnership and Interprofessional Practice Learners attitudes and perceptions • Stage 1 pre module teaching BA/MA 2006 • Stage 2 post module teaching BA/MA 2006 • Stage 3 end of programme MA 2008; BA 2009

4. Measurement tools Tools derived from University of West of England (Miers et al 2005) IPE programme • Communication and teamwork scale (CT) • Interprofessional learning scale (ILL) • Interprofessional interaction scale (II) • Interprofessional relationships scale (IR)

5. Perception of her/his communication and teamwork skills, comparing change for 3 sub groups of students by years of relevant pre-course experience Students with most experience (5+ years) show no change. Students with least experience (less than one year) show most positive change. Pollard and Miers (2004) Accuracy of self report is a matter for consideration; correlation between expressed attitudes and behaviour cannot be guaranteed.

6. Perceptions of learning with other professions: Increase in positive responses between T1 and T2 for all groups. Reduction in neutral and negative responses

7. Perceptions of how health and social care professionals interact in practice: Response to teaching content about interprofessional interaction Increase in negative and neutral views about interprofessional interaction for all groups. Pollard and Miers (2004) comparatively negative responses of students with experience may be explained by ‘low status’ of unqualified role or negative views as a consequence of working in health and social care. If latter, there is likely to be an increase in negative perceptions as students gain experience.

8. Perception of relationships between student and others from own and other disciplines: Unsettling effect for inexperienced students. Moderately experienced students may have gained in confidence as knowledge has developed. Experienced students remain untouched.

9. Other UWE findings (Pollard and Miers 2004) • Students in UWE interprofessional learning programme became less positive between first two data collection points for CT IL and II • The older and more experienced students hold the most negative views and are the most difficult to reach. • Research participants tend to overestimate their performance when responding to measures concerning issues of which they have little experience.

10. Reflections It is difficult to interpret the outcomes – we could follow up with qualitative interviews and/or focus groups. In the context of equipping students for interprofessional practice, concern of employers about inexperienced students may be misplaced. As teachers, we need to reflect further on how we ‘reach’ the experienced student. Ethical issues in pedagogic research need careful management when teachers and assessors also collect research data.

11. Next steps • Complete SPSS analysis of BA/MA T1 and T2 and MA T3 • Collect and analyse end programme BA T3 data • Compare further with UWE findings • Write-up