Faculty members’ and final-year students’ perspectives on interprofessional collaboration and professional roles: a qualitative study in Türkiye

Interprofessional collaboration is important for patient-centred care and health professions education. However, undergraduate students may have limited opportunities to learn about the roles of other health professions and how different professionals work together in healthcare teams. This study explored faculty members’ and final-year students’ perspectives on interprofessional collaboration, teamwork, and professional roles in health professions education in Türkiye. This qualitative descriptive study was conducted at five universities in Ankara, Türkiye. Participants were recruited from medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, pharmacy, and nutrition and dietetics programmes. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 47 faculty members, and 35 final-year students participated in five profession-specific focus groups. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Reporting followed the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research checklist. Four themes were identified: collaborative practice as a requirement for patient-centred care; understanding professional roles and boundaries; communication, hierarchy, and prejudice as barriers to teamwork; and educational and institutional contexts for collaboration. Participants considered collaboration necessary for safe, coordinated, and holistic care. They also emphasised the importance of role clarity, mutual respect, communication, faculty role modelling, and institutional support. Although faculty members and students raised many of the same issues, they approached them from different positions. Students focused mainly on learning, participation, communication, and respect, whereas faculty members placed greater emphasis on professional identity, institutional structures, and the practical conditions required for implementation. Faculty members and final-year students viewed collaborative practice and understanding of professional roles as important but insufficiently structured components of health professions education. Curricula should provide early, repeated, and interactive opportunities for students from different professions to learn together. Faculty development and institutional support are also needed to sustain collaborative learning and practice.