Interprofessional education: The student perspective

National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education's picture
Submitted by National Center... on May 26, 2015 - 11:39am CDT

Resource Type: 
Report

The Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (Toronto Rehab) is a current leader in the movement of

interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives in Ontario, Canada. Nine students from seven different healthcare disciplines, including medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, social work, and speech language pathology participated in the second IPE clinical placement in the winter of 2005 on Toronto Rehab’s Stroke inpatient unit. In an effort to increase interprofessional collaboration, improve communication skills, foster respect and enhance knowledge of the different roles each discipline plays on the health care team, these students met together over a five week period and participated in interprofessional group sessions led by different health care professional leaders from the unit. This paper discusses the students’ perspectives on this IPE experience and the corresponding benefits and challenges. All participants in the study recognized the importance of interprofessional teamwork in patient care and agreed that all health care education should include opportunities enabling them to develop the skills, behaviours and attitudes needed for interprofessional collaboration.

Author(s): 
Melodie Lumague
Alisha Morgan
Diana Mak
Mary Hanna
Joanne Kwong
Colette Cameron
Dori Zener
Lynne Sinclair
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