Abstract
To evaluate person-centred home visits as an interprofessional learning (IPL) activity for undergraduate students during clinical placements in primary healthcare. Interprofessional collaboration is known to improve patient safety, increase job satisfaction, and reduce stress among healthcare professionals. Students should already during their basic training experience interprofessional collaboration. Students from six different educational programmes and supervisors and adjunct clinical lecturers from different professions participated in the learning activity. The students read a description of the patient history before the visit together with a supervisor. During the home visit, the students were responsible for history-taking and for performing relevant examinations. Afterwards, the students made a joint care plan for the patient. Students, supervisors, and adjunct clinical lecturers discussed the outcomes in a seminar and reflected on each other's professional roles. The students and the patients answered a questionnaire about the activity, and the supervisors and the adjunct clinical lecturers were interviewed in focus groups. Thirty interprofessional home visits were conducted, involving 109 students from six different healthcare professions. The students reported that they had gained insights into how different professions could collaborate and an increased understanding of teamwork. All patients were satisfied with the visits and felt that they had been listened to. The interview analysis showed one overarching theme: 'Interprofessional home visits in primary healthcare were an appreciated and effective pedagogical learning activity with a sustainability dependent on organisational factors'. The students felt that participation in the activity increased their understanding of collaboration and of other professions' skills. The supervisors found the home visits to be an appreciated and effective learning activity. The results indicate that this learning activity can be used in primary healthcare settings to promote students' IPL, but organisational factors need to be considered in order to support sustainability.
Highlights
Health services are entering a new era in most Western countries as a consequence of the rapid change in demographics that is underway
Participating in interprofessional shared tasks including discussions and reflections enhanced teamwork skills according to a review by Kent et al (2017), which is in line with our results, even though the interprofessional learning (IPL) activity in our study lasted only for three hours
The results in this study indicate that separate organisations and geographical distances are obstacles both for interprofessional collaboration and for IPL
Summary
Health services are entering a new era in most Western countries as a consequence of the rapid change in demographics that is underway. Populations are ageing, which means that more people will live longer with chronic diseases, and these account for a large part of healthcare costs. To meet these challenges, healthcare needs to shift its focus from acute hospital care towards a more chronic care model, centred in primary healthcare. Patients with chronic conditions often require the competence of more than one profession for their care, and in many cases require regular and lifelong contact with healthcare. Interprofessional collaboration is based on shared decision making and shared responsibility, where the perspective of all professions is taken into account, and the patient and their family members are an integral part of the team (Petri, 2010). Interprofessional collaboration has been shown to lead to more efficient care (Petri, 2010)
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