Introduction
Introduction
The multidisciplinary team is at the heart of modern healthcare , with professionals from different fields working to fulfil their roles to the highest standards in order to promote the best patient care possible ( Barnsteiner et al , 2007 ). When health care students learn together , the interaction encourages thoughtful and active participation in shared tasks to allow participants to acquire a deeper insight into each other ’ s eventual professional roles and motivate them to take on a more active role in teaching what they have already learned ( Fernandes et al , 2015 ; Thistlethwaite , 2015 ).
Learning together has also been shown to instill teamwork , improve communication across professions ( Hamilton et al , 2008 ; McKinlay and Pullon , 2014 ; Harden , 2015 ; Sytsma et al , 2015 ;), and allows students to contextualize their studies to real-life clinical practice ( Wenrich et al , 2013 ) while reflecting on their skills ( Fernandes et al , 2015 ; Thistlethwaite , 2015 ).
Gross anatomy is the most commonly taught discipline in such a setting , primarily because it is a common core subject in the training of health care professionals ( Barnsteiner et al , 2007 ; Hood et al , 2014 ; Fernandes et al , 2015 ; Cleveland and Kvan , 2015 ). Moreover , shared use of cadaveric material may help to address issues such as limitations in space , staff and resources , all while promoting improved teamwork and more active learning ( Zwarenstein et al , 2009 ; Fernandes et al , 2015 ).
Numerous studies involving students from a variety of health care professions have explored changes in test scores as well as in the attitudes of students that learn together . For example , in the study of Sytsma et al ( 2015 ) medical ( MD ) and physical therapy ( PT ) students lectured each other on different topics . At the end of the sessions , both sets of students showed a better appreciation for each other ’ s professions . Similarly , the faculty-driven intervention by Sadowski et al . ( 2015 ) demonstrated statistically significant improvements in knowledge test scores when PT students provided instructional sessions on walking aides to pharmacy students .
Core competencies in health care professions include teamwork , responsibility , honesty and respect for other professions . Although these are incorporated in undergraduate courses worldwide , learning together offers the opportunity for healthy interaction with students of other professions , where constructive criticism can be exchanged on a more informal level ( Hamilton et al , 2008 ; Harden , 2015 ). For example , in the Shields et al . ( 2015 ) study , ten PT doctoral students provided musculoskeletal assessment sessions to Year 1 MD students under faculty supervision . By the end of the study , both groups of students expressed a desire for more such sessions , while the PT students also reported feeling more prepared to interact with patients as they had learned to re-tune their knowledge to teach those with a lesser understanding of the subject .
Student-led teaching takes this concept to the next level wherein the efforts of the often untapped resource of “ students as teachers ” ( also known as peer- or near-peer teachers ) have been shown to improve educational outcomes , student relations and interprofessional perceptions , while also conserving faculty resources and funding ( Hamilton et al , 2008 ; Sytsma et al , 2015 ).
A commonly encountered challenge in the clinical setting is the concept of working in a multidisciplinary team for the first time while adapting to the high stakes involved in a professional role with little safe space for beginners ’ practice or mistakes ( Wenrich et al , 2013 ). Nearpeer education offers a safe environment when making these novice mistakes in early practice ( Huitt et al , 2014 ; Isbell et al , 2016 ).
While improvements in exam performance suggest that these types of intervention may have academic advantages , their effectiveness may also be gauged by improvement in communication , teamwork as well as in the attitudes of health care students towards each other . These constructs are most effectively measured by the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale ( RIPLS ) due to its widely published validity ( Parsell and Bligh , 1999 ). The RIPLS measures responses on three subscales : teamwork and collaboration ( 9 items ), professional identity ( 7 items ) and roles and responsibilities ( 3 items ). McFadyen et al . ( 2005 ) updated the original instrument by further subdividing the professional identity subscale into positive and negative . Since then , the RIPLS questionnaire has been widely used ( Hamilton et al , 2008 ; Wenrich et al , 2013 ; Hood et al , 2014 ; Fernandes et al , 2015 ; Sytsma et al , 2015 ; Thistlethwaite , 2015 ; Herrmann et al . 2015 ).