University of Newcastle, Faculty of Health, School of Medicine and Public Health, Level 4 West HMRI Building, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia.
BMC Med Educ. 2014 Mar 18;14:52. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-14-52.
Interprofessional education (IPE) has been recognized as an innovative approach for the development of a collaborative, practice-ready health workforce, but is not used consistently in undergraduate health professional programs. We sought to explore the reflections of graduates on the IPE experiences they had during their undergraduate education and training. It was anticipated that having completed their pre-vocational education and spent up to two years working in a clinical environment, recent graduates would be well-placed to provide insights into the value of the IPE opportunities they had, and to suggest approaches for improving these opportunities in undergraduate programs.
This study was part of a larger research project (Interprofessional Education for the Quality use of Medicines; IPE for QuM) which used focus groups as part of an interpretive research design to inform other aspects of the research. Here, we report on focus groups with recent graduates recruited from area health services across Australia.
Sixty-eight recent graduates working in New South Wales, Western Australia, and Tasmania participated in 12 focus group sessions. In this paper, we report on new graduates' reflections on their experiences of IPE as part of their university degree, as well as their recommendations to improve interprofessional education before graduation. The new graduates were unanimous in valuing IPE from their current perspective of being in the health workforce. Most IPE experiences recalled were regarded as positive, but those valued most highly were experiences that involved genuine engagement and opportunities to interact with students in other professions working on a relevant problem. Clinical placement was a missed opportunity with few structured meaningful interprofessional learning experiences. Surprisingly there was little social contact between professions in universities even when programs were co-located, thus reinforcing professional silos.
The graduates provided many insightful reflections about the value of university-based IPE and their preparedness for clinical practice. Although universally acclaimed as a "good idea" there is much room for improvement. We put forward a set of suggestions to improve IPE and guide the design of future IPE efforts.
跨专业教育（IPE）已被公认为培养协作型、能胜任实践的卫生专业人员的创新方法，但在本科卫生专业课程中并未得到一致应用。我们试图探讨毕业生对其本科教育和培训期间所经历的 IPE 体验的反思。预计这些应届毕业生在完成职业前教育并在临床环境中工作了长达两年后，将能够很好地提供他们所经历的 IPE 机会的价值的见解，并为改进本科课程中的这些机会提出方法。
本研究是一个更大的研究项目（药物合理使用的跨专业教育；IPE for QuM）的一部分，该项目使用焦点小组作为解释性研究设计的一部分，为研究的其他方面提供信息。在这里，我们报告了从澳大利亚各地的地区卫生服务机构招募的应届毕业生参加的焦点小组。
来自新南威尔士州、西澳大利亚州和塔斯马尼亚州的 68 名应届毕业生参加了 12 次焦点小组会议。在本文中，我们报告了应届毕业生对其作为大学学位一部分的 IPE 体验的反思，以及他们在毕业前改进跨专业教育的建议。应届毕业生从他们目前作为卫生工作者的角度一致认为 IPE 具有价值。大多数回忆起的 IPE 体验被认为是积极的，但最受重视的是那些涉及真正参与和与从事相关问题的其他专业学生互动的体验。临床实习是一个错失的机会，几乎没有结构化的有意义的跨专业学习体验。令人惊讶的是，即使在课程集中的情况下，大学中的专业之间也很少有社交联系，从而强化了专业隔阂。
毕业生对大学基础 IPE 的价值以及他们为临床实践做好准备的情况提供了许多有见地的反思。尽管普遍认为这是一个“好主意”，但仍有很大的改进空间。我们提出了一系列建议，以改进 IPE 并指导未来 IPE 工作的设计。
