Teaching and Learning Interprofessionally: Family Medicine Residents Differ From Other Healthcare Learners

Abstract

AbstractBackground: In recent years, interprofessional education and collaborative patient centred care have been promoted to improve efficiency and quality of healthcare service. Teaching interprofessional education has been challenging. There are fewmature curricula, a lack of standardized teaching approaches, and our healthcare learners are educated in different institutional systems. The objective of this study was to explore how one interprofessional educational initiative impacted different healthcare learners from college and university.Methods and Findings: A day-long interprofessional cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) workshop was presented to learners from multiple disciplines. Within aframework of collaborative, experiential, and reflective learning, the workshop aimed to promote interprofessional teamwork skills, professional roles, and collaborative behaviours. A mixed-methods design using pre- and post-workshop questionnaires was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop. Significant differences were found between family medicine (FM) residents and healthcare learners of other disciplines in three domains: a) satisfaction with the CBT content area of the workshop, b) attitude toward interprofessional learning and collaboration, and c) the interprofessional learning experience.Conclusions: The results resonate with longstanding, taken-for-granted roles and attitudes in the culture of healthcare. This study invites serious consideration of when best to embed interprofessional education in healthcare curricula, so that learners will come to shape a professional identity that includes interprofessional collaborative care.