Preparing nursing students for interprofessional learning

Abstract

Introduction: Teaching strategies for nursing students need to be varied to prepare them for their future practice, and to increase their confidence levels in order to ensure that they deliver high quality care to patients. Interprofessional learning (IPL) is a way to develop health professional teams in that it facilitates collaboration by having health professional students learn with, from and about each other's roles and responsibilities in the provision of patient care. At present, nurses are unable to learn together with other health professional students during their clinical posting, because of professional barriers. Objective: To explore nursing students' knowledge and perception of interprofessional learning. Authors developed a grading system named the Discrepancy-Agreement. Method: This paper presents the results of a focus group discussion with nursing students (n= 8). A semi structured guide was used that focused on knowledge, experiences and benefit related to IPL. Result: Data were analysed, from which four major themes emerged: 1) Learning with, from and about other health professionals; 2) Communication skills; 3) Teamwork; and 4) Preparation of future practice Conclusion: The results of this study suggest IPL as an educational strategy should be introduced to nursing students in order to extend their understanding of the roles and responsibilities of other health professionals and to provide them with opportunities to work collaboratively with other health professionals.