Content area
Full text
This paper describes the development, methods and results of a novel interprofessional student-led aged care clinic. The clinic was established to facilitate the interprofessional education of students approaching graduation in dietetics, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry, social work, and speech pathology. Students worked together in a primary care clinic established to support patients >70 years old who had recently been discharged home from an acute hospital admission. The students completed a screening interview of patients in mixed-discipline teams, established health care needs, and wrote referrals for appropriate support services. A mixedmethods evaluation approach was taken; the effects of the clinic on students (n=70) and educators (n=14) were evaluated. A subgroup of students (n=42) and educators (n=12) participated in focus groups designed to enable evaluation of learning outcomes. Students reported developing an expanded perspective of issues that affect the health of older people, felt that they gained knowledge about the practical roles and referral pathways of other disciplines, and described enhanced interprofessional communication skills. Educators reported that they observed the students' development of communication and referral skills and expanded awareness of health domains that they would not previously have considered. J Allied Health 2014; 43(1):51-56.
HEALTH SYSTEMS are likely to be more effective when health care providers across specialised disciplines collaborate to design and provide support services. The World Health Organisation (2010) recommends interprofessional education (IPE) for developing informed and collaborative practice.1 IPE reflecting authentic practice may be the most effective at achieving desired learning outcomes.2
In recent years, a range of interprofessional clinical placement opportunities have been reported. Within acute hospital settings, interprofessional student-led care in orthopaedic training wards has been described, where patient care is delivered by mixed-discipline student teams working and learning together.3,4 There is also the potential for undergraduate students to achieve both discipline-specific and IPE outcomes within a student-led outpatient setting or clinic,5,6 with exposure to a greater variety of clinical presentations than an orthopaedic ward. Learning within an ambulatory outpatient clinic has advantages: patients are less ill, and such a clinic provides both repeated exposures to common primary care presentations and opportunities to engage students in health maintenance and promotion.7 Student clinics can also be designed to target specific patient groups. The breadth of health care needs...