‘More effort and more time.’ Considerations in the establishment of interprofessional education programs in the workplace

ABSTRACT

The argument for integrating interprofessional education (IPE) activities into the workplace has been made concurrently with the call for collaborative clinical practice. An exploratory case study investigation of existing activities in a large metropolitan health care network was undertaken to inform the development of future IPE initiatives. Purposive sampling invited clinicians involved in the design or delivery of workplace IPE activities to participate in a semi-structured interview to discuss their existing programs and the opportunities and challenges facing future work. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and thematically analysed. In total, 15 clinicians were interviewed representing medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, psychology, social work and speech pathology. The IPE programs identified included one medical and midwifery student workshop, several dedicated new graduate or intern programs combining the professions and multiple continuing professional development programs. Three dominant themes were identified to inform the development of future work: clinician factors, organisational factors and IPE considerations. In addition to the cultural, physical and logistical challenges associated with education that integrates professions in the workplace, the time required for the design and delivery of integrated team training should be accounted for when establishing such programs. Considerations for sustainability include ongoing investment in education skills for clinicians, establishment of dedicated education roles and expansion of existing education activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional education
• continuing education
• workplace learning
• interviews
• qualitative method

Acknowledgements

This work was completed as part of a dedicated interprofessional education role at Monash Health. The authors acknowledge Mr. George Habib for his assistance in the design phase this research.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the writing and content of this article.