“Refreshed…reinforced…reflective”: A qualitative exploration of interprofessional education facilitators’ own interprofessional learning and collaborative practice

Abstract

While there is extensive research examining the outcomes of interprofessional education (IPE) for students, minimal research has investigated how facilitating student learning influences the facilitators themselves. This exploratory case study aimed to explore whether and how facilitating IPE influences facilitators' own collaborative practice attitudes, knowledge, and workplace behaviours. Sixteen facilitators of an online pre-licensure IPE unit for an Australian university participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. Inductive thematic analysis revealed three emergent themes and associated subthemes characterising participants' reflexivity as IPE facilitators: interprofessional learning; professional behaviour change; and collaborative practice expertise. Participants experienced interprofessional learning in their role as facilitators, improving their understanding of other professionals' roles, theoretical and empirical knowledge underlying collaborative practice, and the use and value of online communication. Participants also reported having changed several professional behaviours, including improved interprofessional collaboration with colleagues, a change in care plan focus, a less didactic approach to supervising students and staff, and greater enthusiasm impressing the value of collaborative practice on placement students. Participants reported having acquired their prior interprofessional collaboration expertise via professional experience rather than formal learning opportunities and believed access to formal IPE as learners would aid their continuing professional development. Overall, the outcomes of the IPE experience extended past the intended audience of the student learners and positively impacted on the facilitators as well.

Online interprofessional education facilitation: A scoping review

“…A number of the studies also reported results relating to outcomes associated with IPE facilitation. Two papers reported the acquisition of knowledge by the online IPE facilitators, reporting their own interprofessional learning associated with their role (Clouder et al 2015;Evans et al 2016).…”

“…The facilitators' own interprofessional learning therefore is likely to reflect the opportunity provided by the facilitation role to engage in thoughtful discourse and reflection with their community of learners. Further, one of the included studies reported that facilitators were successful in transferring some of their own collaborative learning during their online experiences to behaviour change in their own practice settings (Evans et al 2016).…”

“…2012) and health professional facilitators (Evans et al 2016) reported increasing their own understanding of other professions as a result of the facilitation experience. For example, Evans et al (2016) noted "the unit refreshed or refined their knowledge of the roles of different health professionals, and in turn resulted in a greater sense of appreciation for the various contributors to a healthcare team" (p 704). These authors also reported facilitators gaining an improved theoretical and empirical understanding of collaborative practice following their involvement.…”

“…Similarly, the development of their own skills as both an IPE facilitator and an online facilitator was reported as an outcome of being involved in the facilitation (Evans et al 2014). Evans et al (2016) also reported facilitators having changed several professional behaviours as a result of their facilitation role. This included improved interprofessional collaboration with colleagues, a more explicit focus on interprofessional care planning, and changes to their student and staff supervision practices to greater reflect principles of collaborative practice.…”

An exploration of teaching presence in online interprofessional education facilitation

“…While a small number of researchers have started to explore aspects of online asynchronous IPE facilitation (e.g. Evans et al 2014;Evans et al 2016), relatively little attention has been given to the actual contributions facilitators make in an asynchronous online IPE environment.…”