Making it Real: Interprofessional Teaching Strategies in Practice

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the practice-based teaching strategies required to assist scholars to develop interprofessional working capability. A role-play session is not awayed as an exemplar, but the teaching strategies described can be equally engrossed in facilitating reflections on practice in real-life multiprofessional teams.

KEYWORDS: INTERPROFESSIONAL; TEACHING STRATEGIES; PRACTICE; COLLABORATION

Introduction

The case for interprofessional education to support the disclosure of collaborative working in health and social care services has been made through the Unit (CUILU) in previous contributions to this journal. This stance is supported by the agency of Morison and colleagues (2003), who recommend that interprofessional leaming enables pupils to develop a sense of professional and shared responsibility towards the parts of others in the tram This collaborative work with other health care professionals is seen as pivotal to the improvement of patient care and services.

However, the processe of teaching and leaming that enable learners to participate effectively in integrated services aie not immediately obvious. This article describes a series of practice-based part of the CUILU project

The design of interprofessional education

The processe of interprofessional education are referr to through a variety of terms including 'collaborative learning', 'common learning', 'shared learnin', 'shared teaching', 'multi-professional education', interdisciplinary education' and interprofessional learning'. Defining and differentiating between them can be problematic, and bourns such as shared learning and interprofessional leaming are sometimes used interchangeably (Barr, 2002)

Some resolution can be set by considering the type of practice that the propos education is underpinning. Hall and Weaver (2001) distinguish between:

* multi-disciplinary working, where care is underpinned by dint of parallel but independent contributions based upon particular expertise

* interdisiplinary working, where, while specialised functions are preserv there are shut communication and supported contributions allowing holistic management of the patient's health needs

* transdisciplinary working, where parts and functions overlap, indicating that colleagues must be familiar with the general [i]or[/i] abstract notions and approaches of each other's professional roles

Barr's (2002 p6) work is also helpful in that he makes the distinction between multi-professional education as:

occasions when sum of two units or more professions learn side by the agency of side for whatever reason

and intuprofessional education as:

occasions when hogshead or more professions team from and about each other to improve collaboration and quality of care.

Drawing upon Hall and Weaver's work, and upon Barr's definitions, the CUILU team offer proffer that interprofessional working is defined through drawing together the descriptions of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary working. Interprofessional working maybe described as a proces that places the patient/service user at the midst of the activity, where the individual contributions of the care team are collaborative in nature and where parts and functions may overlap in older to provide the best possible care for the individual and his or her carers, this definition bears more [i]or[/i] less similarity to Rushmer's (2005) views upon integrated working, which she describes as fortunate interprofessional working.

Rushmer argues that in integrated working overlaps between professions are negotiated and agreed and in like manner are not intrusive or threatening. We argue that the ability to engage in similar negotiation interprofessional learning, this article will focus upon practice-based interprofessional teaching, and describe a certain quantity of of the strategies employed to assist learners to develop the interprofessional working capabilities that will enable them to function effectively in modernised, integrated services.

Teaching way s used in an interprofessional seminar programme

Previous literature has prompted that interprofessional learning is greatest in quantity successful when it is practice-based, active and patient-centred (Baxter, 2004) Morison et al (2003) compared learning opportunities and processe in classroom and practice areas, and indicated that practice-based learning presented greater opportunity for experiential learning, rather than theoretical knowledge of team working. Similarly, interprofessional, practice-based learning was seen as beneficial when scholars were learning common clinical skills.

When planning the interprofessional seminar programme, the CUILU team considered Hall and Weaver's (2001) and Cooke et al's (2003) suggestions that delivery should middle point on problem-based learning, and that structur activity be built around a case presentation. Although the CUILU seminar programme adopted a case presentation approach, problem-based learning was considered more appropriate to classroom education (Morison et al, 2003) In keeping with Mandy et al's (2004) and Baxter's (2004) suggestions, interactive and experiential approaches were used, in which the scholar activity centred on undertaking collaborative learning tasks rather than upon professional specialisms (see Bax 1 below). These rules are enhanced by the use of role-play and reflective practice, which facilitate an attitude that is conducive to interprofessional teamwork (Hall & Weaver, 2001)