Students' perceptions of interprofessional collaboration on the care of diabetes: A qualitative study of focus-group interviews

Abstract

Background: Interprofessional education (IPE) can promote healthcare professionals’ competence to work in interprof­­essional collaboration (IPC), whi­­­­ch is essential for the quality and safety of care. An interprofessional approach is particularly important in complex, chronic diseases like diabetes. A number of studies have been published on IPE, but only a few with a qualitative approach.Methods: The objective of this qualitative study was to evaluate changes in medical and nursing students’ perceptions of IPC, induced by a novel IPE course on diabetes care. The data from focus-group interviews of 30 students before and after the course were analyzed by using an inductive and deductive content analysis.Findings: The students´ perceptions were illustrated as Elements of interprofessional care (e.g. Elements formulating care team and Quality of professional care relationship ) and Elements of IPC (e.g. Importance of communication and Valuation of collaboration ). The post-course interviews added one subcategory ( Need of resources ) to the pre-course perceptions, and there was improvement in ten areas of self-perceived competence in performing or understanding IPC on diabetes care.Conclusions: The IPE course piloted in this study increased the students’ self-perceived competence and confidence in performing IPC on the care of diabetes, and changed their understanding of IPC towards a more patient centered and holistic perspective. More research is needed to evaluate the generalizability and sustainability of these changes.

relationship between effective communication and interprofessional collaboration for patient safety culture in hospitals of Maldives

“…Another researcher highlighted the importance of communication in collaboration as open communication between HCPs to resolve unclear issues which may arise to due to poor communication such as "If something bothered you in the team, or in the care, or in the physician-nurse teamwork, you could tell about it, if something for example annoys you." (Kangas, Jaatinen, Metso, & Tuula-Maria, 2020). Various errors of and barriers, to effective communication have been identified within clinical areas.…”