Attitude of healthcare professionals in Pakistan towards inter-professional collaborative competencies: A cross-sectional study

Inter-professional education (IPE) is recognized as best-suited strategy to improve health professionals' collaborative competencies, leading to improved patient outcomes. However, assessment of attitude of healthcare professionals towards these competencies is also important for developing effective strategies for promoting inter-professional collaboration. The present study was designed to assess IPE collaborative (IPEC) competencies of healthcare professionals including physicians, nurses and pharmacists in Pakistan. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to assess IPEC competencies of 500 healthcare professionals i.e. (physicians, nurses, and pharmacists) working in tertiary care healthcare facilities located in 4 cities of Pakistan were selected using convenient sampling technique. A pre-validated tool IPEC self-assessment was used for data collection. After data collection, data was analyzed statistically. The mean scores of healthcare professionals regarding IPEC Competencies were calculated for total items in which mean score of nurses was highest (67.34 ± 0.52), followed by pharmacists (66.24 ± 0.58) and then doctors (65.88 ± 0.44). The results depicted higher IPEC competencies in all the health professionals. On both the domains i.e., inter-professional values and inter-professional interaction, nurses outscored both pharmacists and doctors with mean scores 34.46 ± 0.26 and 32.88 ± 0.28 respectively. The findings indicate that healthcare professionals in Pakistan generally demonstrate positive attitudes toward inter-professional collaborative competencies, with nurses showing comparatively higher scores across both inter-professional values and inter-professional interaction domains. Although the overall competency levels were encouraging, the variation across professional groups suggests the need for more targeted efforts to strengthen collaborative practice among all disciplines. Integrating structured IPE and training into clinical and academic settings may help bridge these gaps and further enhance teamwork, ultimately supporting better patient care outcomes.