Interprofessional collaboration amongst health care professionals in Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective: Effective interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is a cornerstone of high-quality healthcare delivery. Given the complexity of healthcare systems, optimal patient outcomes depend on the ability of professionals across disciplines to work cohesively. Conversely, weak collaboration among health workers contributes to poor service quality, a challenge evident in Nigeria. This study explored the perceptions and practices of IPC among healthcare professionals at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the validated Assessment of Interprofessional Collaboration Scale questionnaire, rated on a five-point Likert scale. Data analysis involved mean ± standard deviation for continuous variables and proportions/percentages for categorical data.
Results: A total of 185 respondents participated, with the majority (77.3%) aged between 20-39 years. Females accounted for 61.1% of the sample, though gender distribution varied by profession: nursing remained predominantly female (91.2%), while medical laboratory science was male-dominated (87.5%). Among specialists, laboratory scientists (37.5%), physiotherapists (35%), and doctors (33.3%) had the highest proportions. Doctors and nurses recorded the highest mean scores across most IPC domains, particularly role clarity (4.40 and 4.33, respectively) and trust (4.45 and 4.34). Administrators and “others” consistently recorded the lowest scores (3.12-3.74). ANOVA revealed significant differences across all parameters (p <.001). Post-hoc analysis confirmed stronger doctor-nurse collaboration compared to other groups.
Conclusions: Findings revealed that doctors demonstrated the strongest interprofessional collaboration, followed by nurses and pharmacists. In contrast, physiotherapists, laboratory scientists, administrators, and other cadres reported lower levels of collaboration. Notably, doctors consistently rated themselves highly and were similarly rated by other professional groups. Strengthening IPC across all healthcare professions remains essential to improving teamwork and ensuring better patient outcomes.

Keywords

Healthcare professionals / Interprofessional collaboration / Teamwork

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We acknowledged the hospital staff of Federal Medical Centre,

Owo, who assisted us in data collection.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTIONS

FTO Correponding author: Conceptualized, designed the study and wrote the first draft of manustrip. Developed the statistical analysis plan and performed the statistical analyses with ATM. ATM and FTO did literature search and final manustrip write up. FAE, AYA, AKI, OOI: Questionaires administration and data collection. All authors have given final approval for the current version to be published.

FUNDING

No external funding was received.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE

The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

INFORMED CONSENT

Obtained.

ETHICS APPROVAL

The Publication Ethics Committee of the Association for Health Sciences and Education. The journal’s policies adhere to the Core Practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

PROVENANCE AND PEER REVIEW

Not commissioned; externally double-blind peer reviewed.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

DATA SHARING STATEMENT

The data can be requested from the corresponding author.

OPEN ACCESS

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

COPYRIGHTS

Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.

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