An evaluation of an interprofessional practice-based learning environment using student reflections

• Published in: Journal of interprofessional care Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 108 - 110
• Main Authors: Housley, Cora L, Neill, Kathryn K, White, Lanita S, Tedder, Andrea T, Castleberry, Ashley N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis Ltd 01-01-2018
• Subjects: Clinical Competence; Collaboration; College students; Communication; Community health services; Comparative analysis; Cooperative Behavior; Cultural Competency; Environment; Group Processes; Health care; Health services; Humans; Interagency collaboration; Interdisciplinary aspects; Interdisciplinary education; Interdisciplinary Placement - organization & administration; Interprofessional Relations; Learning; Learning environment; Medicine; Patient Care Team - organization & administration; Patients; Physicians; Practice based education; Professional Role; Student Run Clinic; Students, Health Occupations - psychology; Teams; Underserved populations; interprofessional education; Collective learning; qualitative method; reflection work-based learning
• ISSN: 1356-1820; 1469-9567
• DOI: 10.1080/13561820.2017.1356808

The 12th Street Health and Wellness Center is an interprofessional, student-led, community-based clinic. Students from all University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences colleges work together to provide healthcare services for residents of an underserved community. Interprofessional student teams assess patients and present to an interprofessional preceptor team. At the conclusion of clinic, teams reflect on their experience. The objective of this study is to generate key themes from the end of clinic reflections to describe learning outcomes in an interprofessional practice environment. Student teams were asked to reflect on what they learned about patient care and interprofessional practice while volunteering at the clinic. Three hundred eighty reflection statements were assessed using the constant comparative approach with open coding by three researchers who identified and categorised themes by selecting key phrases from reflections. Eight themes emerged from this process which illuminated students' self-perceived development during practice-based learning and interprofessional collaboration. Key phrases were also coded to the four core Interprofessional Education Collaborative competency domains. These results suggest learners' perception that the Center is a practice-based environment that provides an opportunity to learn, integrate, and apply interprofessional curricular content.