Students' approaches to learning in clinical interprofessional context.

BACKGROUND: Health care professionals are supposed to work in teams. Students in health care need to learn how to collaborate during their undergraduate education. Interprofessional learning environments, where collaboration is necessary, may be differently accepted by students depending on their approach to learning. AIM: We investigated health care students' evaluations of interprofessional clinical training in relation to their study orientations. METHODS: The participants were 369 students (40 occupational therapy-, 85 medical-, 52 physiotherapy-, and 192 nursing students) attending an IPE course at a Swedish University Hospital. Data were collected by questionnaires measuring orientations to studying and attitudes towards the clinical training and the IPE concept before and after the training. The response rate was 77 %. Study groups were formed by a cluster analysis on the basis of the students' learning orientations. RESULTS: Three clusters were found: Low collaboration-, Collaborative Constructivist-, and Cookbook groups. These clusters were related to different professions and how students perceived their interprofessional learning environment. CONCLUSIONS: Study orientations appear to play a role in the way students evaluate interprofessional training. This should be taken into account in instruction. Students with a 'Cookbook' approach to learning showed an increased understanding of interprofessional collaboration after the course.

Mentoring medical students during clinical courses: a way to enhance professional development.

BACKGROUND: Mentoring is known to develop professional attributes and facilitate socialization into a profession. Only a few structured mentoring programmes for medical students have been reported in the literature. AIM: The objective of this study was to investigate undergraduate medical students' experiences and perceptions of one-to-one mentoring and whether they felt that the mentorship promoted their personal and professional development. METHODS: Medical students (n = 118) during their third and fourth years of their studies were offered a personal mentor for 2 years and followed up via a questionnaire when the mentoring programme was completed. Statistical software was used to compute data. Open-ended questions were analyzed by content analysis. RESULTS: Most of the respondents experienced that the mentoring programme had facilitated their professional and personal development. The role of the mentor was experienced as being more supportive than supplying knowledge. The students appreciated talking to a faculty not connected with their courses. The few barriers to a successful mentorship were mainly related to timing logistics and 'personal chemistry'. CONCLUSIONS: One-to-one mentoring during clinical courses seems to enhance the medical student's professional and personal development. Future studies are needed to get a deeper understanding and knowledge about factors of importance for successful mentorship.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Swedish version of Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS).

CONTEXT: Interprofessional learning activities in health care are being gradually introduced on an international basis and therefore cross-cultural and internationally collaborative research into the outcomes of these activities is needed. Hence, it is necessary not only to translate research instruments into the language of the culture in which they are to be used, but also to adapt them culturally if they are to fulfil the testing purposes for which they are intended. It is also necessary to test a translated instrument in order to ensure that it retains its intended psychometric properties. METHODS: In the present study, the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) was adapted for use in a Swedish student population. Cross-cultural adaptation was performed according to recommended guidelines. The Swedish version was tested on a group of students from various health care professions (n = 214). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was adopted to ensure internal consistency. RESULTS: Minor discrepancies during the different translation processes were identified and corrected. Confirmatory factor analysis suggests that the model had an acceptable fit, implying that the factor structure of the scale did not undergo any significant changes by being subjected to translation. The psychometric qualities of the instrument were comparable with those of the English-language version. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents the cross-cultural adaptation of the RIPLS and demonstrates that its subscale Teamwork and Collaboration is the only reliable subscale. The other 2 subscales (Professional Identity, and Roles and Responsibilities) probably require further scrutiny and development, at least in the Swedish population.

Interprofessional training in clinical practice on a training ward for healthcare students: a two-year follow-up.

This follow-up study describes the former students' lasting impressions of a two-week interprofessional course on a training ward aimed at enhancing the understanding of the roles of other professions and the importance of communication for teamwork and for patient care as well as providing an opportunity for profession-specific training. A questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions was sent to 633 former students two years after the course and 348 (55%) responded. The course was rated as very good and most of the former students had lasting and positive impressions. Ninety-two percent of respondents encouraged teamwork in their present work and 90% wanted to retain the course. The qualitative analysis of the open-ended questions resulted in five categories describing students' perceptions: professional role development, working in teams, tutoring, patient care and future aspects of the course and real world practice. Our results suggest that interprofessional training during undergraduate education provides lasting impressions that may promote teamwork in students' future occupational life.

Interprofessional training in the context of clinical practice: goals and students' perceptions on clinical education wards.

AIMS: This paper describes the context of interprofessional training on clinical education wards (CEWs) and reports students' perceptions of this type of interprofessional and professional training. CONTEXT: A 2-week interprofessional clinical course was designed for medical students in their surgical eighth term, and nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy students, all in their sixth term. Clinical tutors were responsible for the patients and also supervised the students. The goals for the students included: to provide the patients with good medical care, nursing and rehabilitation; to develop their own professional roles; to enhance their level of understanding of the other professions; to stress the importance of good communication for teamwork and for patient care; to enhance understanding of the role of the patient, and to become more aware of ethical aspects of health care. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A questionnaire developed by teachers from the 4 educational departments was used. A total of 962 students responded (78%). RESULTS: The CEWs provided the students with good clinical practice in terms of training in their own professions as well in learning more about the other professions. The importance of good communication for teamwork and for patient care was recognised. The quality of supervision and students' perception of their own professional roles were important factors regarding satisfaction with the CEW course. CONCLUSIONS: The CEW course seemed to provide the students with an opportunity to develop their own professional roles and their functions as team members.