Is Interprofessional Learning Only Meant for Professions Within Healthcare? - A Qualitative Analysis of Associations with the Term Interprofessional Collaborative Learning Among Professional Students

Abstract

Purpose The main goal of interprofessional learning (IPL) is to help students from different professions develop a common understanding of how to work together in future interprofessional collaboration (IPC). When IPL courses are extended beyond healthcare study programmes to include students from education and social care study programmes, the complexity increases. Since lack of communication and collaboration among professionals is a major challenge in welfare services, there is a need to explore professional students’ associations with IPL. Thus, this study aims to explore what students in healthcare, teaching education and social care study programmes associate with the term “interprofessional collaborative learning”. Participants and Methods The study used student data from an ongoing IPL study at one of the largest state universities in Norway. Students from healthcare, social care and educational teaching bachelor programmes answered the following open-ended question in an online cross-sectional evaluation survey: “What do you associate with the term interprofessional collaborative learning?” We analysed data qualitatively from first- (n = 261) and second-year students (n = 97) collected during December 2019 and 2020. Most second-year students took an IPL course during their first year of study. Results Overall, the students across all professions expressed positive associations with IPL. The most eminent category was that students associated IPL with collaboration, followed by learning and learning how to collaborate. First-year students were also associated with gaining and sharing knowledge and competencies with IPL. Understanding roles was eminent among second-year students in teaching education. Conclusion This study supports the importance of IPL across different educational backgrounds since students seemed to have positive associations with the term and a common understanding that IPL involves several professions. The finding that teacher students highlighted the understanding of roles when working with children, young adults and their families, further supports expanding IPL beyond specialised professions within healthcare.

Breakout Rooms Serve as a Suitable Tool for Interprofessional Pre-Service Online Training among Students within Health, Social, and Education Study Programs

“…In the following, these terms are referred to as "sensitive" and "neutral" topics. The questions related to IPL/IPC were slightly overlapping because terminology clarity and translation issues are challenging even when IPL studies are restricted to health care [71,72]. Because we wanted to perform repeated measurements, the questions were kept stable due to the repeated cross-sectional design, in a "pseudo-longitudinal" design [73].…”

Legende tværprofessionel uddannelse

“…Hvor tvaerprofessionel uddannelse omhandler at mødes i forskellighed og drage nytte af den, er det selvsamme forskellighed, der ofte er udfordrende. Det handler blandt andet om forskelle i kulturer, sprog, strukturer og problemforståelser (Garnweidner-Holme & Almendingen, 2022;Oandasan & Reeves, 2005;Reeves et al, 2012). Til gengaeld kan samarbejdet blive drevet frem af forskellighed; gennem forskelle mellem os som mennesker og vores praksisser kan der skabes dynamik og udvikling i det tvaerprofessionelle samarbejde mellem uddannelser.…”

“…Samarbejde på tvaers af professioner er en tendens i tiden, der efterspørges i forbindelse med håndtering af komplekse problemer i velfaerdssamfundet, hvor en given problemstillings kompleksitet raekker ud over, hvad de enkelte professioner kan forventes at håndtere og løse (Holflod, 2023;Sauzet, 2022). På trods af den øgede opmaerksomhed er det en fortsat problemstilling for det tvaerprofessionelle samarbejde i praksis, at de professionelle uddannes i forskellige uddannelseskontekster og heri socialiseres ind i og udvikler forskellige professionsrettede sprog, identiteter, kulturer og metoder (Garnweidner-Holme & Almendingen, 2022;Rasmussen, 2017;Reeves et al, 2012). Professionernes forskellighed skal både bidrage til samarbejdet og til de tvaerprofessionelle håndteringer af komplekse velfaerdsproblematikker, men udgør samtidig en gennemgående udfordring i selvsamme samarbejde.…”

“…Professionernes forskellighed skal både bidrage til samarbejdet og til de tvaerprofessionelle håndteringer af komplekse velfaerdsproblematikker, men udgør samtidig en gennemgående udfordring i selvsamme samarbejde. I et nationalt og nordisk perspektiv peges der på, at der fortsat mangler viden om, hvordan studerende i tvaerprofessionelle uddannelsesfor-løb ved professionshøjskoler og andre videregående uddannelser kan laere at håndtere, udvikle og anvende hinandens forskellighed -og hvilke laereprocesser der kan vaere relevante for dette (Aagerup et al, 2015;Garnweidner-Holme & Almendingen, 2022). I forskningen vedrørende videregående uddannelser ser vi nationalt og internationalt en opblomstring af legende tilgange til laering (engelsk: playful learning) i både forskning og udvikling af professionshøjskoler og universiteter (Holflod, 2022b, Jensen et al, 2021Nørgård & Moseley, 2021;Skovbjerg & Jørgensen, 2021;Whitton, 2018).…”

Staff perceptions on implementing interprofessional education for undergraduate students in health, social work and education

“…Therefore, to improve future interprofessional working, students from across a range of disciplines should foster the opportunity to learn together to understand each other's roles, identities, professional terminology and theoretical frameworks. Working together to solve problems enables students to build and develop skills in collaboration and cooperation, to support safe and effective outcomes for the child, through sharing knowledge, experiences, competencies, and an understanding of how looking at problems through different lenses provides more effective care (Garnweidner-Holme & Almendingen, 2022).…”