Discovering new perspectives – strengthening autonomy. Students from different healthcare professions interact with patients and provide care in a self-determined and interprofessional manner

Abstract

The Careum Summer School (CSS) is a learning setting that enables self-regulated learning in an environment in which trainees and students from the various medical, nursing and therapeutic healthcare professions taught in the Swiss education system (upper secondary and tertiary levels A and B) develop project ideas together with patients and their caregivers. The aim of this learning setting is to promote a positive attitude among trainees and students towards interprofessional collaboration that includes patients as cooperation partners. Objective: The evaluation examines the extent to which trainees’ and students’ attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration changed. Information was also obtained on the experiences patients and their caregivers had during their participation in the CSS programme. Methodology: A total of 69 trainees and students were given access to an online survey in the form of the German version of the University of the West of England Interprofessional Questionnaire (UWE-IP) one week before the CSS programme began and six weeks after it concluded. Problem-focused interviews were also conducted with 11 patients and their caregivers.Results: The attitudes of the trainees and students in the UWE-IP Interprofessional Learning Scale improved significantly after the CSS programme was conducted (median t1=22.0/t2=16.0). The effect size was r=0.839 (Wilcoxon test for dependent samples). No significant results could be identified for the other three UWE-IP scales. Patients and their caregivers reported that they were able to actively participate in the CSS programme and felt valued and appreciated. Conclusion: The CSS offered a learning environment in which all participants were able to exchange knowledge and information in an interprofessional manner and work collaboratively on the development of a project idea – for example an interprofessional competency passport with a spider diagram.

Keywords

• professional health education
• patient participation
• patient education as a topic
• interprofessional education
• interprofessional relations
• caregivers