A Framework for Interprofessional Capability: Developing Students of Health and Social Care as Collaborative Workers

Headnote

ABSTRACT

Modernised health and social care services require that qualifying practitioners have the necessary skills for them to practise collaboratively. The nature of interprofessional working is, however, poorly understood. This article describes the development of learning outcomes regarding interprofessional working that are relevant to all professions.

KEYWORDS: INTERPROFESSIONAL CAPABILITY; INTERPROFESSIONAL LEARNING OUTCOMES; COLLABORATIVE WORKING

Introduction

This article is based on an aspect of the work of the Combined Universities Interprofessional Learning Unit (CUILU). Other CUILU work described in a previous issue of this journal discussed the nature of practice-based learning environments that support the development of students' capability to work interprofessionally. This latest article will examine the concept of interprofessional capability more closely and discuss the development and practical application of a learning framework that encompasses interprofessional learning outcomes that are relevant to all students of health and social care.

Background

The overall aim of the CUILU Project was to describe practice-based learning environments that support students' ability to become effective interprofessional workers. Work was conducted with the intention of exploring and describing the culture of the workplace, the support needed by students, the types of learning opportunities that are required and how patients and service users can be involved. However, none of this work could be structured or made meaningful unless it was dear what it actually is that students need to demonstrate in order to be shown as capable interprofessional workers. The pivotal starting point, therefore, was to articulate what students require to learn, and this was to be the foundation upon which to build the other components of the work.

In both workplace and school-based education, practice-based teachers and university lecturers tend to plan their facilitation of students' learning through the setting of learning outcomes. This practice gives direction to the students' learning, focuses teaching sessions and other learning opportunities and can offer a basis for subsequent assessment of the students' learning, thus making the teaching-learning process transparent for all participants.

In the context of the CUILU Project, it can be argued that such statements about the intentions of what students will learn are necessary to guide them to what is meant by interprofessional working, and, by setting the learning outcomes to be achieved, to ensure that qualifying practitioners have acquired...