Atitudes dos estudantes da área da saúde em relação à colaboração interprofissional: análise em uma universidade pública de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate interprofessional collaborative attitudes of health students at a public higher, as well as the factors that may be related. Methods: This was an observational study with health students from a Brazilian public university. Data were collected through an online and face-to-face questionnaire between March/2023 and October/2024. The students answered a validated questionnaire containing the Brazilian version of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24), the Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Related to Interprofessional Collaboration (EJARCI), and provided sociodemographic data such as gender, age, which semester they’re in, and their participation in collaborative activities. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted. This study was approved by the university's Ethics Committee under CAAE No. 59206122.4.0000.5147. Findings: 740 students took part in the study, the majority of whom were female (n=491; 66.35%). The average age of the participants was 22 years. Most students were in their early semesters of their undergraduate studies (n=442; 60%), and the program with the highest representation was Medicine (n=213; 28.78%). Most of the students had participated in at least one collaborative activity (n=391; 52.84%), with “Project” being the most common one (n=229; 30.95%). Attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration were higher among students in their final semesters than in their first semesters (p< 0.001). Among the programs analyzed, the Pharmacy course had the highest levels of collaborative attitudes, with an overall average of 126.09 (± 9.59), presenting statistically significant differences compared to the Physical Education (p< 0.001) and Nutrition programs (p= 0.001). In addition, students who took part in Academic Leagues showed significantly higher levels of collaborative attitudes than those who didn’t participate (p< 0.05). Conclusion: These results suggest that students enrolled in their final semesters, who participated in academic leagues, and those in the Pharmacy course were associated with a higher development of attitudes related to interprofessional collaboration. On the other hand, sociodemographic variables such as gender, age, the choice of different courses, and the scores obtained on the PRCA-24 instrument did not significantly influence students' collaborative attitudes. This study can contribute to the restructuring of the curricular matrices of health courses in educational institutions, to promote the development and/or improvement of collaborative attitudes during the students' educational path. In addition, it can guide reflections on the elaboration of the National Curricular Guidelines for health courses at the national level, considering the perspective of interprofessional education.