The use of videoconferencing to enhance interprofessional clinical education for allied health students

Abstract

The Health-e-Learning project investigated the use of videoconferencing to deliver interprofessional clinical education to allied health students. Via a broadband link, students observed DVD footage of a clinical session then participated in discussion with the clinicians at the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH), Melbourne. The videoconference sessions were evaluated with respect to session content, the effectiveness of videoconferencing in providing interprofessional education (IPE) and the satisfaction with this as a supplement to facility-based placements. During the two semesters of the project, 28 videoconference sessions were conducted and 724 participants were surveyed. Student responses were positive with 84% indicating that these videoconferences increased their understanding of interprofessional practice (IPP) and 95% agreeing that the sessions were an effective learning tool. The results of this study support the use of videoconferencing to provide interprofessional clinical education.

Keywords::

• Clinical education
• e-learning
• evaluation research
• interprofessional education

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Lauren Andrew, Director of Allied Health, RCH, Melbourne, for initiating this project. Lin Oke, former Director of Occupational Therapy, RCH, Melbourne, for initiating the use of videoconferencing for clinical education at the RCH. Eileen Cini, Speech Pathology Research Assistant, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, for assistance with data analysis.

Declaration of interest This project has been funded through the Department of Health, Victoria, Australia (formerly the Department of Human Services, Victoria). The authors report no conflict of interest.The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.