Description

Two interprofessional problem-based reflective seminars were conducted for the Senior Year students of Nursing and Social Work in December 2010 and March 2011.

In the first seminar, students shared their reasons for choosing their professions, their roles, their understanding of an effective team, its characteristics and the key enablers for collaboration. They started to share their practice and decision-making process in their uniprofessional field experience, and this aspect was the focus for the second seminar. A debriefing session was conducted for each group to provide general feedback and to share their learning process at the end of each seminar.

The field practice activities were developed through a joint effort between the practice teachers, the liaison persons in the placement settings and the students to identify client’s needs and the kind of activities that an interprofessional group of health and social care students could provide. For example, health promotion activities for the primary school students in the themes of caring through growing beans and making sandwiches for their significant others; home visits were made for those who suffered from chronic illnesses by both nursing and social work students together and workshops were conducted to provide education about nutrition and food preparation for the mentally challenged individuals. Two practice teachers from each profession were engaged in joint supervision for each student team during the two-week placement period.

Intended Educational Value

These seminars were designed to give students opportunities to share different professional perspectives, to explore their own and other people’s professional values, ethics beliefs and knowledge. On the other hand, the 2-week field practice aims to promote collaborative learning between nursing and social work students and hence provide a holistic and quality care programme to the service users in the community. As for the field practice, it aims to promote collaborative learning between nursing and social work students and hence provide a holistic and quality care programme to the service users in the community.

Example of Application

For the 2 interprofessional seminars, the first seminar was conducted in December 2011. A total of 33 nursing students and 32 social work students of the Senior Year were recruited on a voluntary basis. These students were then divided into 4 groups with 7-10 students from each discipline. Two facilitators from nursing and social work were assigned to each group.

A total of 13 Nursing students and 8 Social Work students participated in the field practice. They were formed into 4 interprofessional teams and each team was assigned to visit a specific community to provide services for different target clients. These 4 different communities include 2 primary schools, a group of adults with cognitive/ mental disability, and a group of elderly people. The participated students had to collaborate with their teammates in planning and implementing the caring activities based on the needs and requests of their clients. Two teachers from both professionals engaged in joint-supervision for each student team during the field practice.

Evaluation/ Comments

Data were collected through quantitative and qualitative methods. Students were asked to fill out a self-reported questionnaire in 3 stages (pre-seminar, post-seminar and post practice) for comparison.

The seminar discussions were audio- and video-taped for data analysis. At the end of each community practice, students participated in a semi-structured focus-group interview to share their experience of collaboration. Another focus-group interview was carried out with the seminar facilitators/ field teachers in August 2011 for them to share their experience and opinion on the seminars and joint supervision of the community practice and reflect on their own learning in interprofessional education and collaboration.

Data show an overall improvement in role understanding, communication and collaboration with participants after the interprofessional experience.

Role clarification and enhancement
The seminar discussions and sharing between nursing students and social work students have enhanced their understanding about each other, and have clarified their misunderstandings. Prior to their involvement in this study, nursing students commented that they thought social workers were dealing with patients’ financial situation only, and their perception of the role of social workers was very limited. In this study, these students began to understand about social workers’ involvement in various aspects of social care and knowledgeable about available community resources to be included in the care programme for the patients. On the other hand, social worker students’ initial perception of nurses as uncaring was changed after they leaned about the value, role expectation and constraints of the nursing students. The interactions between nursing students and social work students have encouraged students’ self-reflection. They realized their and other people’s strengths and limitations through this interprofessional experience.

Managing conflict constructively
During the seminar discussions, the perceived conflicts between nursing students and social work students arose mainly from their different values and approaches. The internalization of the values and approaches of their professions was evident in the collaborative practice. The participating students managed these conflicts and differences by turning them into learning opportunities with explanation, appreciation, integration of strengths of different people and a common goal to learn from each other for a holistic understanding of care.

Understanding the importance of communication in teamwork
Students have misassumption about the work habits of students of another discipline at the beginning. Through collaboration, they learned and recognized the importance of communication. Students also learned the importance of communication by observing each other’s interactions with their clients and others to provide a better care for their clients. In one of the community settings, students were not given a specific role in their practice, and this unclear role has provided the opportunity for them to talk to each other and improve their team communication.

Appreciation of the meaning of teamwork and understanding of collaborative interdependence
After the collaborative community practice, students had a more concrete idea about how to collaborate with each other in order to provide better services. They have also learned that a holistic care programme cannot be achieved by one single profession only but requires interprofessional collaboration.

Students’ feedback
Most of the students in this study expressed that this was a rare and good learning opportunity for them to share and learn from each other without pressure on their academic performance. They agreed this experience was helpful to prepare themselves to work in the future interprofessional working environment and learn how to communicate and collaborate with different professionals.
 

Remarks

If you would like to know more about these seminars and field practice, please contact the project leader.