Interprofessionality in undergraduate collective health courses: A study on different learning scenarios

Abstract

This article aimed at understanding how interprofessionality is applied in different learning scenarios in an undergraduate Collective Health course. It was an exploratory qualitative investigation based on observations of educational experiences of undergraduate Collective Health students from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Four practice areas were observed and 15 undergraduate students from different course periods were interviewed. Documents related to theoretical and practical disciplines were analyzed. Some experiences showed unique relationships between work and education processes that enabled an articulation between knowledge and practice in order to provide concrete answers to situations found in interprofessional practice. However, the distance between the academic world and the world of the work resulted in barriers to an effective collaborative interprofessional work.