Pharmacy students' interprofessional perception towards the pharmacy profession in Malaysia

Inter-professional collaboration is a health care model that integrates and promotes the teamwork between health care professionals from different backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to investigate the inter-professional perception of pharmacy students towards the pharmacy profession in Malaysia. Online questionnaire evaluating the inter­ professional perception of pharmacy students consisting of two sections were distributed through Google Form to pharmacy students around Malaysia. The response rate was 50.7% with 82% of the respondents coming from female students. Overall, pharmacy students in Malaysia have a generally positive perception towards inter-professional collaboration. Third and fourth year students have higher scores compared to first and second year students. Exposure to previous or current hospital or community training seemed to have a huge influence in students' inter-professional perception scores. The results on factor-based classification scores were also similar. Students who attended seminar or conference within the last six months showed a higher score in Factor 3. In conclusion, third and fourth year, as well as students who have undergone their hospital or community training generally have a positive inter-professional perception.