A pioneering and ground-breaking effort to organize interprofessional education (IPE) was initiated in 1986 at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Linkoping University in Sweden. The so-called "Linkoping IPE model" has now yielded practical experience and development of curricula for over 20 years. The basic idea of this model is that it is favorable for the development of students' own professional identity to meet other health and social professions already into their undergraduate studies. Interprofessional learning is a process over time that requires several integrated stages to gain interprofessional competence, i.e., the skills required to work together interprofessionally in practice. We believe that defined IPE modules early in the curriculum combined with student-training ward placement as the final module is an encouraging example of how to implement undergraduate IPE among health science students. It is strengthened by problem based learning (PBL) in small groups and student-centered learning. Based on these experiences, this paper aims to contribute to the discussion on how to implement and achieve the aims of IPE and to keep it sustainable. It is not a description of "how to do it" but rather a summarizing of our experiences for successful performance of IPE. The article presents how the Linkoping model was developed, the outcomes, experiences and some outlines for future challenges.
BackgroundInterprofessional Education (IPE) is now spreading worldwide and many universities are now including IPE in their curricula. The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not such student characteristics as gender, previous working experience in healthcare, educational progress and features of the learning environment, such as educational programmes and curriculum design, have an impact on their open-mindedness about co-operation with other professions.MethodsMedical and nursing students at two Swedish universities were invited to fill in the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS). Totally, 955 students were invited and 70.2% (n = 670) participated in the study. A factor analysis of the RIPLS revealed four item groupings (factors) for our empirical data, but only one had sufficient internal consistency. This factor was labelled "Team Player".ResultsRegardless of the educational programme, female students were more positive to teamwork than male students. Nursing students in general displayed more positive beliefs about teamwork and collaboration than medical students. Exposure to different interprofessional curricula and previous exposure to interprofessional education were only to a minor extent associated with a positive attitude towards teamwork. Educational progress did not seem to influence these beliefs.ConclusionsThe establishment of interprofessional teamwork is a major challenge for modern healthcare. This study indicates some directions for more successful interprofessional education. Efforts should be directed at informing particularly male medical students about the need for teamwork in modern healthcare systems. The results also imply that study of other factors, such as the student's personality, is needed for fully understanding readiness for teamwork and interprofessional collaboration in healthcare. We also believe that the RIPL Scale still can be further adjusted.
Different professions meet and work together in teams every day in health and social care. In order to identify and deliver the best quality of care for the patient, teamwork should be both professionally and interprofessionally competent. How can enhanced education prepare team workers to be both professionally and interprofessionally competent? To achieve interprofessional skills and design effective interprofessional curricula, there is a need for metacognitive frameworks focusing on the connection between theories and the problem-solving process and the structure and content of professional competence. The aim of this article is to discuss the need for shared metacognitive structures/models as a tool for securing successful interprofessional learning and developing personal, professional and interprofessional competence to improve the quality of care. A metacognitive model for interprofessional education and practice is presented. This model has been developed as a tool for analysing professional competence on three levels: individual, team and organisation. The model comprises seven basic components of professional competence and the way they are related and interact. Examples of how this metacognitive model can be used early on, in the middle and late in interprofessional education are given.
Today interprofessional education is spread throughout the world. In Sweden only one of the existing nursing programmes has an IPE curriculum on several levels during the training.The aim of this study was to examine how nurses who recently graduated from universities with IPE or non-IPE curricula perceive the importance of different educational goals and whether they found themselves prepared for their profession, and especially for collaboration with other professions.Three universities with different commitments to interprofessional education were studied.We used a survey with eight different targets: communication skills, co-operation with other professions, problem solving capability, self-directed learning skills, whether their education has prepared them to work professionally, to perform research, to take care of acutely ill patients, to work preventively and working as a nurse. The participants were asked if their undergraduate education had prepared them for these targets and if they perceived that the targets were important goals for their education.A main result in this study was that nurses who had recently graduated from the IPEuniversity perceived to a greater extent that their undergraduate training had prepared them to work together with other professions in comparison with nursing students from non-IPE universities.
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