Janet Richards

Outcomes of longitudinal integrated clinical placements for students, clinicians and society

Medical Education 2012: 46: 1028–1041

Faculty perceptions of interprofessional education

Nurses and other health professionals are required to demonstrate broad levels of expertise and service to ensure quality patient-centred health care. Interprofessional practice aligned with interprofessional education (IPE) has been promoted as a vehicle to promote broad levels of expertise. However, challenges remain for universities and other higher education institutions to successfully provide IPE opportunities for students. This paper presents perceptions of academic staff towards IPE from one Australian multi-campus health faculty. Perceptions were collected using interviews and two workshops. Findings are themed under the categories of faculty barriers, industry challenges and future opportunities. The perceptions of one health faculty regarding the fundamental factors required for IPE success were executive leadership of IPE, a supportive funding framework and an IPE based curricula. Nursing education can play a key role in embracing and leading future IPE approaches given that nurses are the numerically dominant health professional group and work collaboratively with other professionals to deliver patient-centred care.

Developing an interprofessional capability framework for teaching healthcare students in a primary healthcare setting

Abstract This article is based on a partnership between a primary health service and a university whose shared goal was to prepare students and graduates for interprofessional practice (IPP). This collaborative process led to the development of consensus on an interprofessional capability framework. An action research methodology was adopted to study the development and progress of the partnership between university and health service providers. The initial aim was to understand their perceptions of IPP. Following this, the findings and draft capabilities were presented back to the groups. Finalisation of the capabilities took place with shared discussion and debate on how to implement them in the primary care setting. Several ideas and strategies were generated as to how to prepare effective interprofessional learning experiences for students in both environments (university and primary health care setting). Extensive stakeholder consultation from healthcare providers and educators has produced a framework, which incorporates the shared views and understandings, and can therefore be widely used in both settings. Development of a framework of capabilities for IPP, through a collaborative process, is a useful strategy for achieving agreement. Such a framework can guide curriculum for use in university and health service settings to assist incorporation of interprofessional capabilities into students’ learning and practice.

Transformative Learning in Medical Education: Context Matters, a South Australian Longitudinal Study.

This longitudinal study followed the clinical learning journey of 20 medical students over 4 years, from the beginning of their clinical immersion, through one of the three different clinical placement models: block rotation, longitudinal integrated clerkship, or community- and hospital-integrated learning, and then into Year 4 and the intern year postgraduation. This study explored how these different contexts can influence the process of transformative learning. The results identified six well-defined changes to their ways of seeing the world which participants described as insights shaped by their clinical training. These themes were self-awareness, patient centeredness, systems thinking, self-care, clinical skepticism, and understanding diversity. Further analysis explored how changes in worldview can be instrumental, communicative, and emancipatory. This study demonstrates that context matters and that longitudinal models of clinical education may facilitate emancipatory learning.

Towards an understanding of medical student resilience in longitudinal integrated clerkships

BackgroundResilience is required to succeed academically, overcome challenges during clinical training and cope positively with stress in future professional life. With medical students at high risk of mental illness, socially accountable medical schools are seeking to foster student resilience. This exploratory study proposes a conceptual framework for student resilience in longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs).MethodsThis qualitative study sought to understand student resilience during the first year of clinical training in a rural LIC where there were consistent anecdotal reports of high student resilience. In-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 19 medical students, professional staff and clinician teachers. An interpretive approach was used to analyse the data with emerging concepts compared to define evolving theoretical constructs, and develop a conceptual framework.ResultsLIC students experienced adversity during the first clinical year of the medical course due to challenges encountered in the learning environment. This distress was moderated by: a secure, supportive learning environment; their profound learning journey; and utilisation of organisational structures to stay on course.ConclusionThis triad of inter-related themes forms a conceptual model that challenges simplistic notions that medical courses should focus solely on providing tangible and emotional supports for students. How LIC programs may contribute to student wellbeing is discussed through the lenses of agentic, reflective and transformative learning.

Translating medical school social missions to student experiences

There is a growing focus on the social missions of medical schools as a way of expressing an institutional commitment to service, responsibility and accountability. However, there has been little exploration of how a social mission translates to student experiences.