Characteristics and adoption patterns of faculty in the health professions who integrate interdisciplinary education into teaching and learning

The purpose of this study was to identify and compare faculty in the health professions who are Early Adopters of interdisciplinary education to their Mainstream Faculty colleagues along parameters identified by Rogers (1995). Results from a web-based survey sample of two hundred twenty-five full time faculty (a 50.1% return rate) representing nine health professions (medicine, nursing, dentistry, occupational therapy, physical therapy, public health, social work, pharmacy, and physician assistants) were analyzed.; Data analysis yielded nine significant findings: (1) Faculty in the health professions who were Early Adopters had contact with more students per semester than Mainstream Faculty; (2) Early Adopters demonstrated greater levels of self-efficacy than Mainstream Faculty; (3) Early Adopters were represented in seven of nine academic departments and eight of nine disciplines that participated in the study; (4) Early Adopters sought more help or assistance with interdisciplinary education from outside of the social system than Mainstream Faculty; (5) Early Adopters reported greater expertise in the use of simulated case studies, role play, peer teaching, clinical problem solving than Mainstream Faculty; (6) There was no significant difference between Early Adopters and Mainstream Faculty in the content areas for which they were responsible, the populations that they prepared students to serve or the practice areas that they prepared students to enter; (7) Early Adopters rated student/profession centered incentives significantly higher than Mainstream Faculty; (8) Mainstream Faculty rated student/profession centered barriers significantly higher than Mainstream Faculty; and (9) Early Adopters rated administrative centered barriers significantly higher than Mainstream Faculty.; The assumptions forwarded by Rogers (1995) were only partially supported by the results of this study. This may indicate that the experiences, social system and/or role of faulty in the health professions who are Early Adopters of interdisciplinary education may be different from Early Adopters in other studied groups. While Early Adopters of interdisciplinary education in the health professions represent only a minority of the faculty, studying them presents faculty and administrators with an opportunity to better understand interdisciplinary education—an interesting and challenging endeavor.