Brief Research Statement
“Life doesn’t operate in silos, education shouldn’t either” (ease education). However, the traditional curriculum emphasizes silo-based instruction and does not adequately prepare the students for the demands of the 21st century workplace (e.g., collaboration, creativity). To address this limitation, IPECP research agenda focuses on tearing down silos in education through interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP). Central to IPECP is untangling the basic instructional, motivational, and psychological principles that underpin the success of IPECP in The University of Hong Kong.
Interprofessional collaborative practice has caused considerable interest but the effects of integrating interprofessional education (IPE) into a nursing therapeutics subject have not been investigated. To evaluate students’ attitudes, knowledge, skills, competency in interprofessional collaboration, and experiences in IPE. A concurrent nested design was adopted. Students were assessed using scales before and after the programme. A focus group interview was also conducted. Among 159 nursing students, a statistically significant increase after the programme was found in knowledge of the roles and scopes of medicine, social work, pharmacy, traditional Chinese medicine, engineering, and law (p<0.05), interprofessional team skills (p<0.001), and competency (p<0.001). Four main categories were identified: ‘‘thoughts on interprofessional collaboration,’’ ‘‘gains from the education pro-gramme,’’ ‘‘barriers to a positive learning experience,’’ and ‘‘working towards a better learning experience.’’ IPE had positive effects on students. The results provide valuable insights for educators to integrate IPE into the nursing curriculum.
Ho, L. Y., Wong, A. K., Ganotice Jr, F. A., & Tipoe, G. L. (2025). Effects of a cross-university interprofessional education programme on nursing students: A concurrent nested study. Teaching and Learning in Nursing.
While interprofessional education (IPE) continues to expand across healthcare curricula, understanding of how students' psychological needs profiles influence their learning engagement remains understudied. A study of 341 health and social care students revealed two distinct psychological needs profiles, with students displaying higher autonomy, competence, and relatedness (41% of participants) demonstrating more positive attitudes and greater engagement in IPE compared to those with lower psychological needs profiles. These findings suggest that educators should design IPE interventions that enhance students' basic psychological needs to promote better engagement and collaborative outcomes in interprofessional learning environments.
Dizon, J. I. W. T., He, Q., Shen, X., Luk, P., Chong, D. Y. K., Chan, K. M. K., ... & Ganotice Jr, F. A. (2024). Which psychological needs profile exhibits higher engagement and favorable attitudes toward interprofessional education? A cluster analysis among health and social care Hong Kong students. BMC Medical Education, 24, 1508.
Despite established links between peer relationships and academic achievement, the mechanisms connecting social dynamics to motivational outcomes in interprofessional education (IPE) remain poorly understood. A study of 841 healthcare students across eight disciplines examined how peer relatedness mediates the relationship between motivation and engagement in IPE. Analysis revealed that intrinsic motivation increased engagement while reducing disaffection, with peer relatedness significantly mediating the relationship between student motivation and their IPE engagement levels. These findings emphasize the crucial role of peer connections in fostering positive IPE outcomes, suggesting that educators should prioritize creating collaborative environments that strengthen student relationships within interprofessional teams.
Ganotice Jr, F. A., Mendoza, N. B., Dizon, J. I. W. T., Shen, X., Lee, J. C. Y., Chan, E., ... & Tipoe, G. L. (2024). Students’ motivation and engagement in interprofessional education: the mediating role of peer relatedness. Medical Education Online, 29(1), 2430593.
Research exploring the role of student facilitators in interprofessional education (IPE) remains scarce, despite their potential impact on peer learning outcomes. A qualitative study of eight student facilitators from diverse healthcare disciplines revealed that IPE facilitation enhanced their professional development through improved social networks, confidence, interprofessional understanding, and lifelong skills development. Through cognitive and social congruence, these facilitators created supportive learning environments and effectively engaged peers in interprofessional discussions, suggesting that student-led facilitation could be a valuable strategy for enhancing IPE delivery.
He, Q., Lei, J., Chong, D., Luk, P., Chan, E., Shen, X., ... & Ganotice Jr, F. A. (2024). Unpacking the perceptions and experiences of student facilitators in interprofessional education: a qualitative study. Medical Education Online, 29(1), 2330257.
Limited understanding exists regarding the factors that enhance collaboration outcomes in interprofessional education (IPE), despite its growing implementation across healthcare disciplines. A study of 147 healthcare students from Hong Kong and UK institutions examined the influence of personal factors (autonomy, competence, relatedness) and environmental factors (clear goals, technology support) on collaboration outcomes through a ten-day IPE programme, revealing that relatedness, clear goals, and technology support significantly predicted team effectiveness and goal achievement. Post-programme assessments demonstrated significant improvements in collaboration outcomes, suggesting that IPE design should prioritize basic psychological needs and environmental support to enhance interprofessional learning effectiveness.
Shen, X., Dizon, J. I. W. T., Chong, Y. K. D., He, Q., Fonseca, G., Kwok, T. O. T., ... & Ganotice Jr, F. A. (2024). Uncovering the factors underlying collaboration outcomes in interprofessional education: A preliminary investigation involving healthcare students. Nurse Education Today, 141, 106325.
Despite IPE's potential to influence healthcare students' collaborative abilities and professional identity development, limited research exists on its effectiveness as an educational intervention. A mixed-methods study of 263 participants revealed significant improvements in both collaboration perception and interprofessional identity scores following IPE participation, with strengthened correlations between these variables post-intervention and initial collaboration perception predicting later interprofessional identity development. Qualitative findings reinforced these results, as 85.2% of students reported IPE's positive influence on their professional development, suggesting that structured IPE programs effectively enhance students' collaborative competencies and interprofessional identity formation.
He, Q., Dizon, J. I. W. T., Ganotice, F. A., Zheng, B., Yeung, P. P. N., Shen, X., ... & Tipoe, G. L. (2024). Unveiling the impact of interprofessional education on shaping students’ interprofessional identity and collaboration perception: a mixed-method study. BMC Medical Education, 24(1), 855.
Current research on interprofessional education (IPE) and professional identity formation lacks consensus on the optimal timing and progression of IPE implementation in healthcare education. This commentary addresses concerns about potentially harmful effects of ambitious IPE implementation by arguing for a programmatic, longitudinal approach based on Extended Interprofessional Identity Theory (EPIT). Analysis of the theory's three key characteristics—belonging, commitment, and beliefs—suggests that IPE should be integrated systematically throughout the curriculum rather than delayed until after professional identity formation, enabling students to develop collaborative competencies gradually while avoiding the entrenchment of professional stereotypes.
Ganotice Jr, F. A. (2024). Guide on the side: Planting the seed of interprofessional collaboration among medical education students. Medical Education, 58(4), 465-465.
While current interprofessional education (IPE) models effectively promote cross-disciplinary collaboration within universities, there remains a critical gap in providing global and intercultural perspectives in healthcare education. This study developed and implemented a Global IPE Collaboration Model (gIPE) through a partnership of seven institutions across Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, featuring a hybrid program that integrated gamification, technological innovations, and case-based learning to enhance cross-cultural healthcare education. Analysis of the program's implementation revealed successful outcomes in fostering cultural awareness and interprofessional skills despite geographical challenges, with positive post-program evaluations suggesting the model's potential for transforming traditional IPE approaches.
Ganotice, F. A., Tipoe, G. L., Orlu, M., & Tipoe, E. (2024). Breaking disciplinary silos: A global approach to interprofessional education. Medical Education.
While the Community of Inquiry framework was revised to include learning presence, there remained a lack of clarity about how self- and co-regulation jointly influence learning outcomes in online interprofessional education. To address this gap, this study examined the relationships between teaching, cognitive, and social presence alongside learning presence (defined as self- and co-regulation) and their effects on perceived progress and learner satisfaction. Using path analysis of 110 participants, the study found that teaching presence indirectly influenced perceived progress through co-regulation, while co-regulation positively impacted both self-regulation and cognitive presence, highlighting the crucial role of co-regulatory activities in online collaborative learning.
Zheng, B., Ganotice, F. A., Lin, C. H., & Tipoe, G. L. (2023). From self-regulation to co-regulation: refining learning presence in a community of inquiry in interprofessional education. Medical Education Online, 28(1), 2217549.
"The application of self-determination theory in explaining student achievement has been well-established in various contexts. However, its application to medical education, particularly in interprofessional education (IPE) remains underexplored. Understanding how students’ motivation plays a role in students’ engagement and achievement is essential to optimize efforts to improve learning and instruction. This two-stage study aims to contextualize the SDT framework to IPE through the adaptation of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction to IPE (Study 1) and to demonstrate how SDT can be applied in IPE by examining a model of SDT constructs (Study 2) in predicting outcomes (behavioral engagement, team effectiveness, collective dedication, goal achievement)."
Ganotice Jr, F. A., Chan, K. M., Chan, S. L., Chan, S. S. C., Fan, K. K. H., Lam, M. P., ... & Tipoe, G. L. (2023). Applying motivational framework in medical education: a self-determination theory perspectives. Medical Education Online, 28(1), 2178873.
"Team cohesiveness and collective efficacy have been construed as important characteristics of a high-functioning team. However, the psychological mechanism through which they promote positive outcomes remains unknown. Understanding this psychological process is important to teachers and programme implementers to yield actionable interventions that can be used to craft effective practices for optimizing team outcomes. This is especially true in interprofessional education (IPE) in medical education, where a team-based approach to patient management is promoted. Drawing from the social-cognitive theory, we examined a hypothesized model where team cohesiveness predicts collaboration outcomes (teamwork satisfaction, overall satisfaction with the team experience, and IPE goal attainment) via collective efficacy."
Ganotice, F. A., Chan, L., Shen, X., Lam, A. H. Y., Wong, G. H. Y., Liu, R. K. W., & Tipoe, G. L. (2022). Team cohesiveness and collective efficacy explain outcomes in interprofessional education. BMC Medical Education, 22(1), 1-9.
"Students' attitudes towards teamwork, roles, and responsibilities in interprofessional collaborative practice, both at the student and team levels, are important to attaining positive student- and team-level outcomes. The study contributes to the expansion of existing knowledge in medical education, theoretically, by adopting SIT as a lens through which collaborative learning in healthcare teams can be understood, and methodologically, by applying multi-level approaches and delineating important student- and team-level predictors of IPE outcomes."
Ganotice, F.A., Chan, S.S.C., Chow, A.M.Y., Fan, K.K.H., Khoo, U.S., King, R.B., Lam, M.P.S., Luk, P., Ng, A.Y.M., Wang, M.N., Yeung, S.S.S., Tipoe, G.L. (2022). What factors facilitate interprofessional collaboration outcomes in interprofessional education? A multi-level perspective. Nurse Education Today, 105393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105393
"The shift in the way how health care is delivered from exclusive (disciplinary) to a more collective and inclusive (interprofessional) has recently been gaining traction in health care. The need for this shift is even magnified when the health care system face unprecedented challenges that single expertise is no more enough. The promise of transformative power of collaboration in health care suggests that collective intelligence achieves tasks more effectively than a single expertise could achieve."
Ganotice, F. A., Yeung, S. S. S., & Tipoe, G. L. Nurturing the “Self” in Health Professions Education. Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14689
"We were able to demonstrate that SDT is a meaningful framework in understanding behavioral and collaboration outcomes in IPE. The major theoretical contribution of this study refers to the ability of students’ motivation to explain variance in their behavioral outcomes. That is, sense of autonomy consistently predicted team effectiveness, collective dedication, behavioral engagement, and goal achievement. Autonomous motivation among a sample of healthcare students can explain behavioral outcomes."
Ganotice, F. A., Gill, H., Fung, J., Chan J., & Tipoe, G. L. (2020). Autonomous motivation explains interprofessional education outcomes. Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14423
"Students’ readiness for interprofessional learning and attainment of IPE learning outcomes can be predicted directly or indirectly (via overall satisfaction with team experience) by collective efficacy. This finding shows that students’ readiness for interprofessional learning and attainment of IPE-learning outcomes is determined by their favourable team ability perception (CE)."
Ganotice, F. A. & Chan, L.K. (2021). Does collective efficacy drive readiness for interprofessional learning? Evidence from a large-scale interprofessional education program in Hong Kong. Journal of Interprofessional Care. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2020.1831452
"The SPICE-R3 is a valid measure to examine Hong Kong healthcare students' interprofessional attitudes in online interprofessional education even during the pandemic."
Ganotice, F. A., Fan, K. H. K., Ng, Z. L. H., Tsoi, F. H. S., Wai, A. K. C., Worsley, A., Lin, X., Tipoe, G.L. (2021) The short version of Students’ Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education-Revised (SPICE-R3): A confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Interprofessional Care. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2021.1879751
"Results of the between-network analysis suggest that various subscales of IPAS correlated systematically with other theoretically relevant variables: teamwork attitudes, communication, and team effectiveness. The IPAS is a valid measure to examine predominantly Chinese healthcare and social care students’ interprofessional attitudes in online interprofessional education."
Ganotice, F. A., Tipoe, G. L., Chow, A. Y. M., Fan, K. K. H., Lam, M. P. S., Tsoi, F. H. S., Wang, M. N., (2021) To IPAS or not to IPAS? Examining the construct validity of Interprofessional Attitudes Scale among Hong Kong Chinese Sample. Journal of Interprofessional Care. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2020.1869705
"Interprofessional Education (IPE) breaks educational silos by putting students from diverse backgrounds to be better collaborators by learning with, from, and about each other, thus providing optimal care to patients. An assumption inherent to IPE is that when healthcare professionals work as a cohesive team, quality of patient care improves."
IPE Sessions - Learning in alliance: Transitioning to Online IPE. (2020). Bau Institute of Medical & Health Sciences Education, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 25/08/2020 from https://www.bimhse.hku.hk/home/enews-post/ipe-sessions-learning-in-alliance-transitioning-to-online-ipe/
“The key characteristic of learners in computer-supported-IPE which is linked to team success is individual preparedness and team contribution... critical for the interprofessional teams to succeed is harnessing in team players (the students) the value of coming to class prepared as individuals and as important team members who are ready to contribute meaningfully in an interprofessional TBL." (Ganotice & Chan, 2019, p. 218)
Ganotice, F. A. & Chan, L. K. (2019). How can students succeed in computer-supported interprofessional team-based learning? Understanding the underlying psychological pathways using Biggs' 3P model. Computers in Human Behavior, 91, 211-219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.09.029
"Promising outcomes in IPTBL beyond an uniprofessional approach were revealed related to cultivating confidence, developing passion to learn, and enacting the nurse’s roles in these new nursing students.” (Chan, Wong, Chan, & Ganotice, 2019, p. 264)
Chan, K. W., Wong, F., Chan, L.K., & Ganotice, F. A. (2019). Interprofessional team based learning: A revealing process for cultivating professional identity among nursing students. Open Journal of Nursing, 9(3), 249-267. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojn.2019.93025.
“This study offers evidence that RIPLS is a valid instrument in the Hong Kong Chinese context which can be used in understanding Chinese healthcare students’ readiness for interprofessional learning.” (Ganotice & Chan, 2018, p. 73)
Ganotice, F. A., & Chan, L. K. (2018). Construct validation of the English version of Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS): Are Chinese undergraduate students ready for ‘shared learning’? Journal of Interprofessional Care, 32(1), 69-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2017.1359508
“An interesting result of the study was the statistically significant improvement in students' knowledge in caring for patients with complex health-care needs after interprofessional team-based learning. The differences between iRAT and tRAT scores suggested that the students worked better to solve problems with a multidisciplinary team than individually." (Chan, Wong, Chan, Chan, Ganotice, & Ho, 2017, p. 53)
Wong, A., Wong, F., Chan, L. K., Chan, N.K., Ganotice, F. & Ho, J. (2017). The effect of interprofessional team-based learning among nursing students. Nurse Education Today, 53, 13-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2017.03.004
“...there was significant improvement in students’ readiness to engage in interprofessional learning after the IPTBL: teamwork and collaboration, negative professional identity (reversed coded), positive professional identity, and roles and responsibilities”. (Chan et al., 2017, p. 73)
Chan, L. K., Ganotice, F., Jr., Wong, F. K. Y., Lau, C. S., Bridges, S. M., Chan, C. H. Y., Chan, N., Chan, P. W. L., Chen, H. Y., Chen, J. Y., Chu, J. K. P., Ho, C. C., Ho, J. M. C., Lam, T. P., Lam, V. S. F., Li, Q., Shen, J. G., Tanner, J. A., Tso, W. W. Y., Wong, A. K. C., Wong, G. T. C., Wong, J. Y. H., Wong, N. S., Worsley, A., Yu, L. K., & Yum, T. P. (2017). Implementation of an interprofessional team-based learning program involving seven undergraduate health and social care programs from two universities, and students' evaluation of their readiness for interprofessional learning. BMC Medical Education, 17(1), 221. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-017-1046-5