Abstract
BackgroundThis article explores the experiences of clinical healthcare students on an interprofessional simulation course in Auckland, New Zealand. The four-day course aims to provide a formative learning experience for final year medical, pharmacy, nursing, and paramedicine students. It focuses on building skills in professionalism, communication, leadership and interprofessional safe teamwork through structured learning activities and clinical simulation scenarios.MethodsIn 2018, we commenced focused ethnographic research involving participant observation, field notes, interviews, photography and ethnographic film.ResultsA total of 112 students participated in this research from the disciplines of medicine (n = 53), nursing (n = 27), pharmacy (n = 17), and paramedicine (n = 15). In a revisit to Van Gennep’s (1972) seminal work on liminality, we suggest that the course represents a liminal space where students’ ideas about what it means to be a healthcare ‘professional’ are challenged, disrupted and reconstructed. We observed students emerging from the course with transformed professional and interprofessional identities.ConclusionsWe posit that the ritualised and liminal nature of the course plays a role in the development of interprofessional identities by interrupting the reproduction of siloed biomedical culture. Students are challenged to become effective team members alongside other students and experts from other professions. We discuss these findings as they relate to medical and health sciences education.
Highlights
Internationally, interprofessional education (IPE) is a staple of many medical and health professions curricula; it is embedded within educational programmes and is present throughout the continuing education of healthcare professions [1,2,3]
Our findings suggest that students attending Urgent and Immediate Patient Care Week (UIPCW) acquired more than new knowledge; students were challenged to view their professional selves in new ways
Our data highlights that the concept of liminality can help educators better understand the value of interprofessional activities at the pre-registration stages of health professional education
Summary
In team situations, paramedicine students experienced similar threshold moments about scopes of practice and roles Reflecting on her experience after a simulation, one paramedicine student commented, “I started delegating tasks ... Many students made assumptions about the ‘doctor’s’ role, at the beginning of the week when medical students tended to voice their opinions and report back confidently following small group learning activities It was the case in simulation, observation, and debriefing activities. The lesson she took from the debrief was the importance of speaking up to promoted team efficacy and the best patient outcomes She commented that she was determined to change her future practice towards sharing information no matter what the cost – she identified that she needed to let go of her previously–held ideas concerning hierarchies and teamwork. By the end of the week, we started to see evidence of a solidified new state whereby students’ selfconception included an interprofessional dimension
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