Abstract

Purpose: Interprofessional learning in the context of healthcare can be defined as an occasion when two or more professions learn with, from, and about each other to improve collaboration and quality of care. In broad terms, interprofessional learning in healthcare has been shown to have a positive impact on patient outcomes, job satisfaction, and team collaboration.

All statutory professional bodies require universities to provide interprofessional learning (IPL) opportunities for undergraduate healthcare students. This requirement is based on evidence that effective interaction within and between professional groups is crucial to enable healthcare students to learn to address problems and cope with the challenges of clinical practice.

Faculty on campus IPL strategy has been successful introducing IPL teaching and learning opportunities into physiotherapy nursing, pharmacy, psychology, allied health, social work and medical programmes.

The aims of the project were therefore:

1. To explore the transference of interprofessional learning (IPL) collaborations developed in the classroom into the clinical workplace.

2. Co-produce opportunities to enhance practice-based IPL with students and clinical colleagues.

Methods: The research was based within a participatory, co-produced framework. The co-production process involved students from across professional groups, academics and practice placement facilitators (PPFs) from a local Healthcare Trust. Data collection via focus groups (n=3) and semi-structured interviews (n=7) involving a total of 30 students were carried out as part of the co-production process and pilot learning activity.
Results: Three key IPL strategies have been identified and explored within a participatory framework with emergent key themes including student centred learning, person centred care, socialisation, opportunities and barriers to interact, hierarchies and team dynamics, dialogue for flexible learning in personal and professional development, with potential impact on service development.
Conclusion(s): The findings and recommendations suggest opportunities for the development of a wide range of settings and possible strategies to develop collaborative learning opportunities within practice placement experience. A very encouraging aspect of the research, possibly associated with the methodology was the potential for student ownership of learning that may be variable but not entirely dependent on stage at programme, student age, placement setting and context of teams within the practice area to create 'time-out' for open dialogue.

Challenges include logistics for learning, workloads and balancing priorities for all participating groups and the role of facilitation and support for learning. Impact: The project has potetial impact beyond the pilot site, which has stimulated interest already from a regional interprofessional learning group. All professions include the requirement to demonstrate collaborative / team working within the assessment of student practice placment experience.
Development of a more explicit 'menu' of options and encouragement of active student ownership to facilitate this in a more open, expicit manner could further enhance practice placement experience for all interested parties in the creation of a continuum of learning across academic (including simulation) and practice settings.
1st Keyword: practice-based 2nd Keyword: interprofessional 3rd Keyword: learning

Ethical Approvals Ethics approval: Yes
Ethics details: University of Sunderland Ethics Committee (UREC). Approval gained 04/10/2024. Serial number 029170