Collaborative Learning in Maternity and Child Health Clinics

Abstract

The health and wellbeing problems of the families with children have become more complex today. Improving preventive services and facilitating an early intervention in health and wellbeing problems of the families are the main challenges. A better interprofessional collaboration (IPC) of the professionals is needed to maintain the well-being level of the families high. These are skills to be learned during undergraduate education. An interprofessional pair training (IPT) for maternity and child health clinics was implemented in collaboration with primary health care centre and two universities of Oulu to develop an interprofessional education (IPE) model for undergraduate level students. Fifth year medical students (n = 101) and fourth year public health nurses (n = 31) and teachers participated in the training program during 2010-2012. The study aimed at investigating students’ attitudes and readiness for interprofessional learning (IPL), at strengthening their professional skills and at gathering clients’ experiences. The interprofessional student pairs met with the client visits independently. One pair contacted three clients during the day. They examined and observed the examination of the other pair. The feedback was collected from the students and the clients. Students’ attitudes and readiness for IPL were assessed using RIPLS (Readiness for interprofessional learning scale). Both medical and nurse students attached great importance to teamwork and collaboration. Nurse students appreciated the learning of roles and responsibilities more important in comparison to the medical students. A tendency for stronger professional identity among medical student was noted. The clients’ expectations were fulfilled. The training periods gave valuable experience to develop IP pair training for collaborative practices in primary health care and undergraduate health care education. The study results are important for curriculum development as well.