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This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the Eigth Annual Interdisciplinary Health Team Care Conference, which took place September 18-20, 1986 at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  It is reproduced here with the permission of the authors.

The study of attitude change among students engaged in interprofessional education courses at the Ohio State University has been of interest to faculty, researchers and funding sources. While research in attitude change is difficult and imprecise at best, it still remains an important component in measuring the success of efforts to provide opportunities for education in interprofessional collaboration. Attitude changes signal a shift in the student's approach to professional practice and are an important component in the process of professional socialization. Indeed, some researchers have demonstrated that professional identity and accompanying attitudes may be among the most long-lasting effects of professional education (Simpson, 1979; Waugaman, 1987). They point out that pre-service education is the arena in which professionals begin to formulate, refine and adopt the values of their profession and their attitudes about professional practice.
These values and attitudes continue to shape the students' professional practice throughout their career, resulting in extended professional commitment and a high degree of self-identification with the profession. Education for the professions and the values and attitudes which it develops has a meaning, therefore, which extends beyond the boundaries of transmitting a specific body of knowledge or a particular group of skills. It has a continuing impact on the practice of the profession and the shape of that practice. Through the attitudes and values that are formed, pre-service education influences the identity and self-understanding of the professional long after its formal conclusion. Therefore, the study of changes in attitudes is important in assessing the long-term effects interprofessional education has on professional practice.