Interprofessional Team-based Learning: Building Social Capital

Abstract

Often the first-time health professionals work together is as new graduates, with a paucity of shared learning among the various health disciplines within university curricula. This is largely due to the complexities of delivering interprofessional education (IPE) and the preference of individuals to work within their established silos. With its ability to nurture collaboration among students, there is a developing trend to use team-based learning (TBL) as a teaching method to engage health care students in IPE. Using the conceptual lens of social capital theory, the purpose of this article is to provide readers with an overview and evidence for the use of TBL within the interprofessional health care education setting, highlighting the benefits and challenges.