Index of Interdisciplinary Collaboration (IIC)

Submitted by National Center... on Oct 9, 2016 - 8:29pm CDT

Instrument

Authors:

Bronstein, L.R.

Overview:

The IIC is designed to assess social workers’ perception of the quality of collaborative exchanges in interdisciplinary team settings. The tool breaks down interdisciplinary collaboration into five sub-dimensions: interdependence, newly created professional activities, collective ownership of goals, reflection on process, and flexibility. The 42-item self-report questionnaire is meant to assess whether individuals are experiencing the positive interprofessional interactions measured in the tool and potentially how to improve collaboration. A validation study of 462 social workers demonstrated adequate factor structure as well as good internal and test-retest reliability. The scale also demonstrated expected relationships with several influences on interprofessional collaboration.

Link to Resources

Resource links:

Bronstein, L. R. (2002). Index of interdisciplinary collaboration. Social Work Research, 26(2), 113-123.

The IIC has been adapted for other types of team, most notably in: Parker-Oliver, D., Wittenberg-Lyles, E.M., & Day, M. (2007). Measuring interdisciplinary perceptions of collaboration on hospice team. Am J Hosp Pall Care, 24(1): 49-53.

To read a peer review critique on the IIC, go to the AAMC MedEdPortal. Type in "IIC" in the home page search box to find the tool and the critique. Registration and login are required but free.

Descriptive Elements

Who is Being Assessed or Evaluated?:

Individuals

Instrument Type:

Self-report (e.g., survey, questionnaire, self-rating)

Source of Data:

Health care providers, staff

Other

Notes for Data Sources:

The measure is specifically designed for the social work profession. The IIC has been completed by social workers in a variety of settings, such as schools and prisons as well as health care.

Instrument Content:

Attitudes, values, beliefs regarding IPE, IPCP, professions

Reported perceptions, experiences of working relationships, teamwork

Notes for Content:

The tool may be used to measure a single dimension of interdisciplinary collaboration or five sub-dimensions:

Interdependence
Newly created professional activities
Collective ownership of goals
Reflection on process
Flexibility

Instrument Length:

42-items; no time length specified.

Item Format:

5-point Likert-type scales ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5).

Administration:

Questionnaires were mailed to participants in paper-and-pencil format.

Scoring:

Average scores for the total scale or the sub-dimensions can be calculated for each individual. Several items are reverse keyed to minimize the chance of response sets influencing results.

Language:

English

Norms:

None described.

Access:

Open access (available on this website)

Notes on Access:

Contact the author to confirm permission to use.

Psychometric Elements: Evidence of Validity

Content:

The items are based on a literature review identifying indicators commonly found in the literature. The content is based on a model developed by the author.

Response Process:

The instrument was pilot tested with 30 social work students to assess the readability and logic of the IIC. Items were reworded based on feedback from a follow-up 30-40 minute focus group session. The response rate was 47% in the validity study.

Internal Structure:

Factor analysis revealed a good factor 5-factor structure. Seven items were removed for insufficient loadings on any of the factors. The 5 factors explain 42.9% of the variance of which 24.7 percentage points are due to the first factor. The remaining 42-items had very good alpha reliability (i.e., alpha = 0.92). All sub-dimension alpha reliability estimates exceeded the acceptable standard of 0.75, except flexibility (i.e., alpha = .62). A small sample of social work students took the assessment twice within two weeks achieving a good test-retest reliability (i.e., 0.82, p < 0.01). Note: the AAMC reviewer felt the very high inter-correlations among all of the items suggests a stronger argument for a single global factor, rather than adoption of the subscales. scores.

Relation to Other Variables:

Overall scores on the IIC were significantly related to indicators of professional affiliation, agency organization and structural characteristics, personal relationships among collaborators, and prior history of collaboration (r = 0.17-0.56, p < 0.01).

Consequential:

None described.

Assessment & Evaluation

Index of Interdisciplinary Collaboration (IIC)

Related Resources

User Collections

Start the Conversation