What did first-year students experience during their interprofessional education? A qualitative analysis of e-portfolios

Abstract

Interprofessional collaboration is an essential approach to comprehensive patient care. As previous studies have argued, interprofessional education (IPE) must be integrated in a stepwise, systematic manner in undergraduate health profession education programmes. Given this perspective, first-year IPE is a critical opportunity for building the foundation of interprofessional collaborative practice. This study aims to explore the first-year students' learning processes and the longitudinal changes in their perceptions of learning in a year-long IPE programme. Data were collected at a Japanese medical university, in which different pedagogical approaches are adopted in the IPE programme. Some of these approaches include interprofessional problem-based learning, early exposure, and interactive lecture-based teaching. The students are required to submit written reflections as a formative assessment. This study conducted an inductive thematic analysis of 104 written reflections from a series of e-portfolios of 26 first-year students. The themes related to learning outcomes from student perspectives included communication (e.g., active listening and intelligible explanation), teams and teamwork (e.g., mutual engagement and leadership), roles/responsibilities as a group member (e.g., self-directed learning and information literacy), and roles/responsibilities as a health professional (e.g., understanding of the student's own professional and mutual respect in an interprofessional team). The study also indicated three perspectives of students' learning process at different stages of the IPE, i.e., processes by which students became active and responsible learners, emphasised the enhancement of teamwork, and developed their own interprofessional identities. This study revealed the first-year students' learning processes in the year-long IPE programme and clarified the role of the first-year IPE programme within the overall curriculum. The findings suggest that the students' active participation in the IPE programme facilitated their fundamental understanding of communication/teamwork and identity formation as a health professional in interprofessional collaborative practice.

Undergraduate-level teaching and learning approaches for interprofessional education in the health professions: a systematic review

“…Ten of the studies did not mention whether the IPE program was supported financially [ 30 , 47 – 49 , 51 , 54 – 58 ]. Finally, in 14 studies, the authors did not state whether any conflicts of interest existed [ 30 , 45 – 51 , 53 – 57 ].…”

A longitudinal, narrative study of professional socialisation among health students

“…Abu‐Rish et al 11 noted this trend has limitations on the development of strategies which target long‐term impact on collaboration. Imafuku et al 12 identified a need to better understand how undergraduates’ perceptions of IPC and their professional identity develop through ongoing participation in IPE. Findings from their study found that first‐year health professional students’ participation in a year‐long IPE programme facilitated students’ understanding of communication/teamwork and identity formation as a collaborative team member 12 .…”

“…Imafuku et al 12 identified a need to better understand how undergraduates’ perceptions of IPC and their professional identity develop through ongoing participation in IPE. Findings from their study found that first‐year health professional students’ participation in a year‐long IPE programme facilitated students’ understanding of communication/teamwork and identity formation as a collaborative team member 12 . Despite these many contributions to the field, there remains a gap in our understanding of when and how to incorporate IPE within health professional training 5,13 .…”

First-year Medical Students’ Attitudes toward Health Care Teams:

“…11 However, through interactions with patients, students realized that health professionals also had to gain a better understanding of the patient' s psychosocial needs. 22 It is therefore suggested that medical students may not necessarily be disappointed by CP, but rather expect high CP values from the viewpoints of care providers at the entry level. This may be confirmed by the results of the negative response to the factor, "Team efficiency," especially among students from Gunma University.…”