Abstract
BackgroundAn ageing population leads up to increasing multi-morbidity and polypharmacy. This demands a comprehensive and interprofessional approach in meeting patients’ complex needs. This study describes graduate students’ experiences of working practice based in interprofessional teams with complex patients’ care needs in nursing homes.MethodStudents from advanced geriatric nursing, clinical nutrition, dentistry, medicine and pharmacy at the University of Oslo in Norway were assigned to groups to examine and develop a care plan for a nursing home patient during a course. Focus groups were used, 21 graduate students participating in four groups. Data were collected during spring 2018, were inductively analysed according to a thematic analysis method (Systematic Text Condensation). An analytical framework of co-ordination practices was applied to get an in-depth understanding of the data.ResultsThree themes were identified: 1) Complex patients as learning opportunities- an eye-opener for future interprofessional collaboration 2) A cobweb of relations, and 3) Structural facilitators for new collective knowledge. Graduate university students experienced interprofessional education (IPE) on complex patients in nursing homes as a comprehensive learning arena. Overall, different co-ordination practices for work organization among the students were identified.ConclusionsIPE in nursing homes facilitated the students’ scope from a fragmented approach of the patients towards a relational and collaborative practice that can improve patient care and strengthen understanding of IPE. The study also demonstrated the need for preparatory teamwork training to gain maximum benefit from the experience. Something that can be organized by the education institutions in the form of a stepwise learning module and as an online pre-training course in interprofessional teamwork. Further, focusing on the need for well thought through processes of the activity by the institutions and the timing the practice component in students’ curricula. This could ensure that IPE is experienced more efficient by the students.
Highlights
An ageing population leads up to increasing multi-morbidity and polypharmacy
Something that can be organized by the education institutions in the form of a stepwise learning module and as an online pre-training course in interprofessional teamwork
Our analysis revealed that students who participate in Interprofessional education (IPE) on complex patients encounter multiple relations that they need to manage during the activity
Summary
An ageing population leads up to increasing multi-morbidity and polypharmacy. This demands a comprehensive and interprofessional approach in meeting patients’ complex needs. Multi-morbidity will increase correspondingly with population ageing, and there will be a growing demand for a comprehensive approach in meeting complex patients’ needs [1,2,3,4]. Interprofessional education (IPE) is one way to meet the requirement to manage complex patients and to provide an age-friendly care in multiprofessional teams [5]. The clear desire for increased interprofessional cooperation among health care professionals from policymakers, teachers, researchers and students [7, 8] should be better reflected both in practice and in the educational curricula [9] focusing on the clinical learning environments. Patient-related outcomes can be improved by interprofessional collaboration, e.g. achievement of targeted blood pressure, fewer clinical errors and shorter hospital stays [12]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
