News within Clinical Medicine
Dr Maria O'Sullivan receives Dean's Award for Innovation and Teaching 2017
Interprofessional Learning (IPL) aims to increase communication and team work among health professionals, to promote healthcare delivery through collaborate practice and to improve client outcomes. The process is considered a continuum, ideally beginning at the early stages of undergraduate programmes and continuing as lifelong professional development.
The Faculty of Health Sciences currently delivers a successful multidisciplinary IPL programme over three days designed for undergraduate year 3 students, the nature and scale of which necessitates intensive planning, timetabling and organisation. Applying a similar case-based team learning approach, we sought to develop IPL resources tailored for introductory level students. Importantly, however, to overcome some of the logistical barriers, this suite of resources is developed to enable flexible delivery, adaptation and customisation across disciplines. This approach also features a novel 'Near Peer' (student leaders) learning model. Based on the pilot workshops and feedback, it was evident that existing learning material would be complemented by audio-visual material and online resources, used in addition to the student leaders and staff facilitator(s). Allowing additional multidisciplinary voices on professional roles, and case discussion, including 'patient' and family voices.