Interprofessional Education for Interpreting and Social Work Students—Design and Evaluation

Abstract

Public service interpreters and social workers frequently work with each other. A training approach that seeks to bring learners from two professional areas together is interprofessional education. This paper describes and discusses interprofessional education sessions for interpreting and social work students conducted over 3 years. We report on how these were designed and delivered and on students’ evaluation of learning outcomes. Evaluations from students were elicited via anonymous questionnaires in paper/ electronic form. Responses were gained from 218 of 442 participating students on the following: level of confidence to later work with professionals of the other disciplinary background; level of importance of pre-interactional activities; and self-awareness of performance skills when interacting with a member of the other professional group. Confidence levels are reported as high, and pre-interactional activities are rated as important. Responses on performance skills relate to emotional and verbal features as well as to content knowledge and terminology.