Aims

For the undergraduates to:

- learn about each others' roles and responsibilities in relation to prescribing and medicine administration

- develop the ability to share knowledge and skills in clinical problem-solving

- understand the significance of interprofessional work and its contribution to patient care.

Method

A project team consisting of two members from undergraduate sites from the School of Adult Nursing, University of West of England, Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology, University of Bath, and School of Medicine University of Bristol, developed a series of patient case problems, using an enquiry-based learning technique. Each case required care from three healthcare professions. Eight students from each discipline (3^rd year medical, 3^rd year pharmacy and 2^nd year nursing students) volunteered to take part in a structured learning event designed to investigate the feasibility of interprofessional learning at undergraduate level and the attitudes of the students to this mode of education.

Students were assigned to 1 of 4 groups, with 2 members of each discipline in each. Each group was then assigned a specific case scenario and two interdisciplinary members of the project team facilitated the discussion. Each group had one hour to discuss the case scenario. They then presented their conclusions to their fellow students. They were also asked to consider whether this type of learning event could facilitate the understanding of individual professional roles and responsibilities.

Results

The students were asked to rate the day itself and also the case scenario under the following domains: learning opportunities; the structure of the workshop and the organisation of the workshop as 'very useful' (scale 1=not useful to 4=extremely useful). The median result for the learning opportunities was 3 (range 2-4). Comments were invited about the day itself and the case scenario.

• Each discipline commented on the value of working with other healthcare professionals at this stage and acknowledging the interdisciplinary role of patient care.
• Constructive comments about the complexity of the scenarios were received and also the value of defining healthcare roles at an earlier stage of the undergraduate healthcare professional learning cycle.
• Unexpected results were the medical and nursing students' lack of knowledge about the pharmacy undergraduate curriculum and the academic requirements of the course.

Conclusion

An enquiry-based learning project designed to assess the attitude of multidisciplinary healthcare students to the concept of interdisciplinary learning indicated that this form of learning event resulted in a better understanding of individual professional roles. The key to the success of this project was that students had to work together and thereby learnt with each other and from each other.

Future

Organisational and financial support is necessary to ensure that interprofessional learning at undergraduate level is to become reality. The major cofounders are timetabling, transportation and venue acceptability.