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Abstract Introduction Occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals increasingly need interdisciplinary collaborative practice competencies to respond to complex worker safety, health, and social concerns. Effective communication with non-OSH-trained professionals (e.g., health promotion, human resources) is critical for delivering interventions that address interrelated work and non-work sources of risks, per the US “Total Worker Health” (TWH) and WHO Healthy Workplace frameworks. Interprofessional education (IPE) pedagogy offers skill-building specific to interdisciplinary collaboration, but little evidence is available for IPE implementation in OSH post-graduate education settings. We prospectively assessed OSH professionals’ attitudes for participating in post-graduate IPE to learn TWH practices and applications in the workplace. Methods This mixed methods study involved 210 US professionals in safety (31%), industrial hygiene (16%), occupational nursing (12%) and medicine (11%), and related disciplines (30%). Participants completed a 12-item Readiness for Interprofessional Education Scale (RIPLS) adapted for TWH. Nineteen survey-takers also participated in virtual focus groups to share opinions about IPE benefits, barriers, and desirable course features. Results OSH professionals reported high overall readiness for IPE (RIPLS, 4.45±0.47), endorsing IPE for interdisciplinary skill-building. Salient IPE motivators were learning new perspectives from diverse disciplines and industries; gaining new subject expertise; and learning TWH best practices. Participants recommended case studies to practice interdisciplinary problem-solving and time for interdisciplinary group work. Discussion Participants strongly endorsed IPE pedagogy for interdisciplinary collaborative skill-building and developing “common ground” across disciplines. Conclusion Interprofessional education is a promising pedagogy for OSH continuing education settings. OSH educators need to build competency in IPE pedagogical theory and practice.
Nobrega et al. (Mon,) studied this question.