Fostering successful interprofessional teamwork through an undergraduate student placement in a secondary school

Abstract

This exploratory case study examined an interprofessional placement of undergraduate students from nutrition, nursing, early childhood education, and child and youth care who collaborated to develop and deliver four healthy-living modules to secondary school students in Canada. An inductive thematic analysis was used to describe the teamwork that occurred between students. Data collected included focus groups with undergraduate students and preceptors, undergraduate students' reflections and secondary school students' evaluations of the modules delivered. Two major themes that emerged from all data sources were “team functioning” and “shift in perspectives”. The undergraduate students identified several ways that facilitated their successful and positive teamwork with one another and also expressed how the placement experience improved their interprofessional skills. Findings from this study are discussed in relation to contact theory (Allport, 1954) and self-presentation theory (Goffman, 1963). This study suggests that providing undergraduate students with interprofessional placements in an educational setting can enhance interprofessional teamwork opportunities for students of various disciplines.

Keywords::

• Interprofessional education
• interprofessional teamwork
• undergraduate students
• case study
• secondary school setting

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the undergraduate students, preceptors and secondary school students who participated in this study. We also thank RU Interprofessional for their support in delivering interprofessional workshops to the undergraduate students. We extend our appreciation for the editorial assistance received from Ryerson University's Faculty of Community Services.

Declaration of interest

We acknowledge the funding received for this project from The Faculty of Community Services IPE as a RU Interprofessional seed project. RU Interprofessional was funded by Health Force Ontario and the Office of the Provost, Ryerson University. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.