Learning Together about One's and Other Health Care Professionals' Clinical Responsibilities: The Upside of Interprofessional Collaborative Education

Abstract

Background The driving motivation of interprofessional education is that learning together should stimulate trainees to better work together once they are in practice. More specifically, it is thought that learning together could provide an opportunity for trainees to learn about each other thus giving them a common knowledge-based required to interact with each other. However, there is little empirical evidence to support these hypotheses. Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to investigate if, by learning together, trainees learn about their own and each other's’ clinical roles and responsibilities. Materials and Methods: A musculoskeletal clinical case workshop, based on the principles of small-group learning and experiential learning, was offered to 28 trainees from four different programs (family and rheumatology residency, and occupational and physical therapy programs) of a Canadian Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in December 2011. A 24-item Short Answer Questionnaire measure was used to assess the impact of the workshop on participants’ knowledge of their own and others’ clinical roles and responsibilities. Results: Participants’ knowledge about their (69.9 pre vs. 81.4% post) and others clinical responsibilities (60.4% pre vs. 69.5% post) significantly increased as observed in a pre-post comparison. Conclusion: The observed results support the use of a small-group and experiential learning setting to help students learn with, from and about each other's’ clinical responsibilities by having to work together towards a common goal, which was in this instance, a concerted treatment plan.