Students' experiences of collaboration during and after an interprofessional training ward course: a mixed methods study
Hanna Lachmann1, Sari Ponzer1, Unn-Britt Johansson2, Klas Karlgren3 and Bjöörn Fossum4
1Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Sweden
2Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital, Division of Medicine, Sweden
3Karolinska Institutet, Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Sweden
4Sophiahemmet University, Stockholm, Sweden
Submitted: 21/03/2013; Accepted: 03/08/2013; Published: 25/08/2013
Int J Med Educ. 2013; 4:170-179; doi: 10.5116/ijme.51fc.c412
© 2013 Hanna Lachmann et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use of work provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Abstract
Objectives: The objective of this study was to obtain a deeper understanding of how students experience and perceive interprofessional collaboration connected to their learning activities during and after an interprofessional clinical course.
Methods: A sample of 15 healthcare students participating on a two-week interprofessional clinical course was used. A mixed method approach was used for data collection. The students' perceptions were gathered several times a day via mobile phones by using the Contextual Activity Sampling System (CASS) and they were also interviewed after the course.
Results: The data revealed an interesting discrepancy between the students' learning experiences reported during the course compared to their perceptions after the course. The students were generally more critical during the course, i.e., they tended to report things that did not work well. In the post-course interviews, the students reported that difficulties had been solved during the course. The students emphasized also the importance of structure, interaction, and insights into one's own and other professions' tasks as a base for fruitful interprofessional collaboration. Furthermore, they underlined the benefits of interprofessional team learning with opportunities to contribute to and to acquire new knowledge.
Conclusions: The CASS methodology provides possibilities to identify students' and student teams' needs of support to reach the intended learning outcomes of a specific course. Our results might be useful when developing clinical education with a special focus on supporting students in their collaborative practices.