Implementing interprofessional learning in clinical education: Findings from a utility-led evaluation

Clinical practice provides the stimulus for students and practitioners alike to recognise best practice and, if necessary, enhance and modify existing practice. Increasingly, literature related to health service delivery and health workforce planning focuses on the need for collaborative interprofessional work practices. Associated with this, there is considerable enthusiasm among those who educate health professionals for learning opportunities that promote interprofessional interaction among undergraduate learners with a view to inculcating among those students a desire to work collaboratively and collegially in practice. This paper reports outcomes of an evaluation of one attempt to implement interprofessional learning in a single ward of a public hospital in New South Wales, Australia. The evaluation methods included participant-observation by the author as a clinical facilitator of the interprofessional learning group and interviews with groups of students, clinical and academic staff. Key findings of the evaluation include the need for staff to model interprofessional collaboration and ensure that curricula make explicit the rationale for interprofessional learning, structure learning activity toward developing interprofessional competence for contemporary health service delivery, and, ensure that the espoused values of interprofessional practice and learning are reflected in assessment events.