International service learning and interprofessional education in Ecuador: Findings from a phenomenology study with students from four professions

Abstract

Combined international service learning (ISL) and interprofessional education (IPE) experiences can move health professional student learning beyond the traditional confines of the classroom and outside uniprofessional ethos. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the shared experience of health professional students participating in an ISL trip to a small community in Ecuador. The study focused on the learning and collaboration that occurred among students from multiple health professions during the trip and the cross-cultural exchange between the students and the patients in Ecuador. Participants included 15 students from 4 health professional programmes (pharmacy, medicine, physical therapy, and nursing). Data included interviews, focus groups, observation, and written documents. The essential meaning that emerged from this study was that the ISL/IPE learning opportunity created a practical opportunity for demystifying other healthcare professions in the context of a resource-limited international patient care setting, while supporting students' personal and professional development. Four structural themes emerged to describe the student experiences. Students had to negotiate the language barrier, limited resources, and unexpected diagnoses, while simultaneously learning about the roles and scope of other professions on the team and how to communicate effectively. Student's perseverance when facing the challenges resulted in their personal growth. The interprofessional component strengthened the students' knowledge of interprofessional collaboration and communication through real-world application.

Using Interprofessional Education to Promote Oral Health Literacy in a Faculty‐Student Collaborative Practice

“…6 Insights into the educational, systemic, and personal factors contributing to differences among professional cultures can guide innovative educational methodologies towards improvement of interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP). 8 about the context in which illness develops. 8 about the context in which illness develops.…”

“…7 Also, combining service-learning with IPE experiences was found in one study to transform health professions students' learning by taking them outside the confines of the classroom and beyond their specific silos. 8 about the context in which illness develops. They are then encouraged to link oral health and overall health care services to academic coursework as they become global citizen professionals.…”

Fostering cultural responsiveness in physiotherapy: curricula survey of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand physiotherapy programs

“…For this reason, experiential learning involving practical or authentic situations are recommended to encourage students to better understand the individuals they may work with, and allow them to practice, reflect on their experiences and see the effects of their actions, and also receive critical feedback [58]. While there is some research demonstrating the successful application and potential benefits of experiential learning approaches, such as community or international service learning in physiotherapy and other health disciplines, these studies do not explore the impact on patient outcomes and ongoing practice beyond graduation [60][61][62][63]. Therefore, research exploring effective teaching methods that lead to improved patient outcomes is required to ensure students learn to effectively support the health of culturally diverse communities.…”

Development of a program theory for shared decision-making: a realist review protocol

“…Developed to address the shortcomings of previous frameworks, IP-SDM incorporates interprofessionality and the involvement of patient supports [19]. This reflects the fact that decision-making is very context-dependent by considering environmental influences (i.e., social norms, organizational routines, and institutional structures) on decision-making [16].…”

“…Evidence varies in both consistency of how SDM is defined [1–3] and implemented [23–26]. A recent study concluded that implementation of IP-SDM has struggled as the framework, and users of the framework, lack conceptual clarity and minimal implementation guidance [19]. A study conducted by Lloyd and colleagues in 2013 demonstrated the difficulty in SDM implementation, as SDM is a very complex intervention and pre-existing contexts can drastically change implementation success [27].…”