An Innovative Approach to Providing Interprofessional Practice Experience for Students from Osteopathy and Social Work
Keywords:
Interprofessional teamwork, Student-led clinics, Innovative approach, Action research, Surveys, Focus groupAbstract
Providing effective interprofessional practice experience for pre-registration students is challenging. We share an innovative approach that provided opportunities for students from osteopathy and social work to work together and learn from each other. As academics tasked with providing practice experience for pre-registration students, we report what was learnt from the experience. To better understand the students’ experiences, a focus group was conducted. Data from this focus group informed the design of the questionnaire developed for participants in the second year of the innovation. There were eight students
in the focus group, 23 students responded to the questionnaire in the first session, and nine in the subsequent, final session.
Four core categories emerged from the coding process: Professional scope of practice; Interprofessional learning; Practice knowledge and philosophy; and Patient care. As authors, observers, and participants in this active research approach, we have identified a fifth category, “Challenges and learning” that speaks to some of our recommendations. The findings reaffirm the benefits of interprofessional learning for pre-registration health students and the holistic focus emerging in allied health. The disciplines participating in this innovative, interprofessional practice experience do not usually work together, nevertheless the approach adopted may be generalisable across healthcare professions.
References
Barnsteiner, J. H., Disch, J. M., Hall, L., Mayer, D., & Moore, S. M. (2007). Promoting interprofessional education. Nursing Outlook, 55(3), 144–150. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2007.03.003
Begley, C. M. (2009). Developing inter-professional learning: Tactics, teamwork and talk. Nurse Education Today, 29(3), 276– 283. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2008.09.006
Bryant, A., & Charmaz, K. (2007). The coding process and its challenges. In A. Bryant & K. Charmaz (Eds.), The Sage handbook of grounded theory. London, UK: Sage Publications.
Cameron, A., Rennie, S. B. P. T., DiProspero, L., Langlois, S., Wagner, S., Potvin, M. M. R. T., . . . Reeves, S. (2009). An introduction to teamwork: Findings from an evaluation of an interprofessional education experience for 1,000 first-year health science students. Journal of Allied Health, 38(4), 220–226.
Chenoweth, L., & McAuliffe, D. (2015). The road to social work and human service practice (4th ed.). Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning Australia.
Ferrance, E. (2000). Action research. Providence, RI: Brown University.
Frenk, J., Chen, L., Bhutta, Z. A., Cohen, J., Crisp, N., Evans, T., . . . Zurayk, H. (2010). Health professionals for a new century: Transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. The Lancet, 376(9756), 1923–1958.
Glaser, B. G. (2005). The grounded theory perspective III: Theoretical coding. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
Gough, S., Hellaby, M., Jones, N., & MacKinnon, R. (2012). A review of undergraduate interprofessional simulation-based education (IPSE). Collegian, 19(3), 153–170. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2012.04.004
Hargreaves, D., Beere, J., Swindells, M., Wise, D., Desforges, C., Goswami, U., & Wood, D. (2005). About learning: Report of the Learning Working Group. London, UK: Demos.
Hilton,J., & Morris, R. (2001). Student placements - is there evidence supporting team skills devlopment in clinical practice settings? Journal of Interprofessional Care, 15(2), 171-183. doi:10.1080/13561820120039892
Horstmanshof, L., Lingard, R. G., Coetzee, S., & Waddell, L. P. (2016). Clinical exercise physiology students learning with older adults: An innovative simulation-based education programme. Advances in Simulation, 1(1), 1–10. doi:10.1186/s41077-016- 0012-3
Howell, D. (2009). Occupational therapy students in the process of interprofessional collaborative learning: A grounded theory study. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 23(1), 67–80. doi:10.1080/13561820802413281
Kent, F., Drysdale, P., Martin, N., & Keating, J. L. (2014). The mixed-discipline aged-care student clinic: An authentic interprofessional learning initiative. Journal of Allied Health, 43(1), 51–56.
Krueger, R. A., & Casey, M. A. (2015). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research (5th ed. [Kindle]). Tousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Meyers, S. (2011). Life skills training through situtated learning experiences: An alternative instructional model. International Journal of Special Education, 26(3), 142–149.
Mitchell, M. L., Groves, M., Mitchell, C., & Batkin, J. (2010). Innovation in learning – An inter-professional approach to improving communication. Nurse Education in Practice, 10(6), 379–384. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2010.05.008
Morison, S., Johnston, J., & Stevenson, M. (2010). Preparing students for interprofessional practice: Exploring the intra-personal dimension. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 24(4), 412–421. doi:10.3109/13561820903373210
Nisbet, G., Hendry, G. D., Rolls, G., & Field, M. J. (2008). Interprofessional learning for pre-qualification health care students: An outcomes-based evaluation. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 22(1), 57–68. doi:10.1080/13561820701722386
O’Keefe, M. (2015). Collaborating across boundaries: A framework for an integrated interprofessional curriculum. Retrieved from https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/94298/3/hdl_94298.pdf
Pearson, D. J., & Lucas, B. J. (2011). Engagement and opportunity in clinical learning: Findings from a case study in primary care. Medical Teacher, 33(12), e670-e677. doi:10.3109/0142159X.2011.611402
Pollard, K. (2009). Student engagement in interprofessional working in practice placement settings. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 18(20), 2846–2856. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2008.02608.x
Reeves, S. (2000). Community-based interprofessional education for medical, nursing and dental students. Health & Social Care in the Community, 8(4), 269–276. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2524.2000.00251.x
Shrader, S., Kern, D., Zoller, J., & Blue, A. (2013). Interprofessional teamwork skills as predictors of clinical outcomes in a simulated healthcare setting. Journal of Allied Health, 42(1), E1–6.
Snider, K. T., Seffinger, M. A., Ferrill, H. P., & Gish, E. E. (2012). Trainer-to-student ratios for teaching psychomotor skills in health care fields, as applied to osteopathic manipulative medicine. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 112(4), 182–187.
Watt, M. L., & Watt, D. L. (1993). Teacher research, action research: The logo action research collaborative. Educational Action Research, 1(1), 35–63. doi:10.1080/0965079930010104
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Advances in Social Work & Welfare Education by Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research (ANZSWWER) is licensed underCC BY 4.0