Interprofessional Student Team - A Startpoint for Occupational Therapy Studies

BACKGROUND Competencies for interprofessional teamwork will be demanded in the future in occupational therapy. The possibility to achieve interprofessional team learning experiences during education ensures the graduates to be... [ view full abstract ]

BACKGROUND
Competencies for interprofessional teamwork will be demanded in the future in occupational therapy. The possibility to achieve interprofessional team learning experiences during education ensures the graduates to be adequately prepared to represent their profession as part of a diverse interprofessional health care team.

THEORY
Team-based learning enriched by interprofessional dialog sessions, flipped learning and projects can be used in occupational therapy education throughout the studies.

PEDAGOGY
The School of Health and Social Studies at Jyvaskyla University of Applied Sciences has started a new pedagogy where interprofessional student teams are formed in the beginning of the studies. In teams of 17 freshmen and a coach (a teacher) they learn the basic competences of social and health care work, such as values, client centeredness, health promotion, organizations, legislation and working life skills. In addition, team work skills are practiced, such as communication, co-operation, creative problem solving, responsibility, decision making as well as sharing the learned knowledge. After the basic studies, the team learning will continue in professionally focused teams with occasional interprofessional team work days until graduation.

EVALUATION
Data has been gathered from the students, teachers and working life companions in order to develop the pedagogy. About 80% of the working life companions report that the students have good or excellent interprofessional team-work skills, project skills and self-direction skills.

APPLICATION
Many occupational therapy organizations are in a process of renewing their work towards interprofessional teamwork. New graduates and continuing education will be the key factors to facilitate the process.