Community-Based Interprofessional Education at Saitama Prefectural University

Abstract

Saitama Prefectural University (SPU) aims to turn its students into high-quality health and social care professionals who understand the need for working in cooperation with professionals in other disciplines and are competent working with them. SPU offers interprofessional experiences to students to accomplish its stated aims. Based on the principle of interprofessional education, SPU has created an educational framework for achieving collaborative and integrated health and social services. The university provides opportunities from which students can learn, with and about each other beyond the boundaries of their departments and disciplines. In 2005, SPU was selected as one of the universities to be provided with a national government grant in the Support Program for Contemporary Education Needs. In the study presented, signifi cant differences in learning effects were observed in an interprofessional (IP) study, particularly for the aspects of understanding patients, extracting issues, considering resolutions, understanding other professions’ roles, developing perspectives on a team, understanding cooperation and collaboration, and identifying professional roles. The IP study seemed to enable the learning of interprofessional work, which allows students to share objectives in health and social services.