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Background An ageing population leads up to increasing multi-morbidity and polypharmacy. This demands a comprehensive and interprofessional approach in meeting patients’ complex needs. This study describes graduate students’ experiences of working practice based in interprofessional teams with complex patients’ care needs in nursing homes. Method Students from advanced geriatric nursing, clinical nutrition, dentistry, medicine and pharmacy at the University of Oslo in Norway were assigned to groups to examine and develop a care plan for a nursing home patient during a course. Focus groups were used, 21 graduate students participating in four groups. Data were collected during spring 2018, were inductively analysed according to a thematic analysis method (Systematic Text Condensation). An analytical framework of co-ordination practices was applied to get an in-depth understanding of the data. Results Three themes were identified: 1) Complex patients as learning opportunities- an eye-opener for future interprofessional collaboration 2) A cobweb of relations, and 3) Structural facilitators for new collective knowledge. Graduate university students experienced interprofessional education (IPE) on complex patients in nursing homes as a comprehensive learning arena. Overall, different co-ordination practices for work organization among the students were identified. Conclusions IPE in nursing homes facilitated the students’ scope from a fragmented approach of the patients towards a relational and collaborative practice that can improve patient care and strengthen understanding of IPE. The study also demonstrated the need for preparatory teamwork training to gain maximum benefit from the experience. Something that can be organized by the education institutions in the form of a stepwise learning module and as an online pre-training course in interprofessional teamwork. Further, focusing on the need for well thought through processes of the activity by the institutions and the timing the practice component in students’ curricula. This could ensure that IPE is experienced more efficient by the students.

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BackgroundAn ageing population leads up to increasing multi-morbidity and polypharmacy. This demands a comprehensive and interprofessional approach in meeting patients’ complex needs. This study describe graduate students’ experiences of working in interprofessional teams with complex patients’ care needs in nursing homes.MethodStudents from advanced geriatric nursing, clinical nutrition, dentistry, medicine and pharmacy at the University of K in Norway were joined to groups to examine and develop a care plan for a nursing home patient during a course. Focus groups were used, where 21 graduate students participated in four groups. Data were collected during spring 2018 and were inductively analysed according to a thematic analysis method (Systematic Text Condensation) and discussed using four previously proposed types of coordination practices. ResultsThree themes were identified: 1) Complex patients as learning opportunities- an eye-opener for future interprofessional collaboration 2) A cobweb of relations, and 3) Structural facilitators for new collective knowledge. Graduate university students experienced IPE on complex patients in nursing homes as a comprehensive learning arena.ConclusionsInterprofessional education in nursing homes disclose challenges and possibilities to develop the health care service for elderly patients with complex care needs. It is important to experience complex situations during professional education, even if frustrating, when students have the possibility to discuss difficulties with each other and the faculty. Educators can arrange their IPE activity to foster more collaborative practices and potentially increase learning outcomes.

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