Learning environments for interprofessional education: A micro-ethnography of sociomaterial assemblages in team-based learning

Healthcare professionals' experiences of required competencies in mentoring of interprofessional students in clinical practice: A systematic review of qualitative studies

AIM

To synthesize evidence on healthcare professionals' experiences of competencies in mentoring undergraduate healthcare, social care and medical students during their interprofessional clinical practice.

DESIGN

This review was conducted by the JBI methodology for systematic reviews of qualitative evidence.

METHODS

Studies were included if they were based on the phenomenon of interest and used qualitative or mixed methods (qualitative share). The included studies were critically appraised using the standardized JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist. Qualitative research findings were extracted and synthesized using the meta-aggregation approach.

DATA SOURCES

Five databases (CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, Medic and ProQuest) were systematically searched from each database's inception on 28 June 2023.

RESULTS

A total of 5164 studies were initially screened, and 25 were identified for inclusion in this review. Three synthesized findings were identified: competencies related to (1) preparing for and developing interprofessional clinical practice, (2) supporting the learning process in interprofessional clinical practice and (3) creating an interprofessional mentor identity.

CONCLUSION

Although competent mentors are essential to implementing and developing interprofessional clinical practice, some mentors find interprofessional mentoring challenging. High-quality interprofessional mentoring requires specific competence that differs from profession-specific and individual mentoring.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE

To ensure that interprofessional clinical practice is of high quality and strengthens students' professional and interprofessional growth, special attention should be given to mentors' interprofessional mentoring competence, and a range of opportunities and organizational structures should be provided for competence development.

IMPACT

This systematic review provides insights into the specific competencies required for interprofessional mentoring. These findings can support healthcare professionals, educators and policymakers in developing interprofessional clinical practice and mentoring competence.

REPORTING METHOD

This review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement and ENTREQ reporting guidelines. No patient or public contribution.

Sociomaterial perspective as applied in interprofessional education and collaborative practice: a scoping review

Learning and working together towards better health outcomes today have become more complex requiring an investigation on how interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) practices could be sustained and further developed. Through a sociomaterial perspective, we can better understand IPE and IPC practices by foregrounding the material aspect of learning and working together and examining its relationship with humans and their interactions. This article aimed to examine existing literature that discusses the application of sociomaterial perspectives in IPE and IPC. A scoping review was conducted following Arksey and O'Malley's framework to explore the extent within the current body of knowledge that discuss how sociomaterial perspective is applied in IPE and IPC practices. A systematic database search was performed in September 2021 to retrieve literature published from 2007 onwards, with forty-three papers meeting the inclusion criteria. These papers included research articles, book chapters, conference papers and commentaries, with the majority originating from Europe. The thematic analysis revealed the following themes: (1) power as a sociomaterial entity shaping IPE and IPC; (2) inclusion of non-health professionals in reimagining IPE and IPC practices, and (3) the critical understanding of sociomateriality. The findings suggest that a sociomaterial perspective can allow for the reimagination of the contemporary and future practices of interprofessionalism.

A systematic review of online team based learning approaches in health professional education

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to systematically review studies related to the use of online Team Based Learning (TBL) platforms with a focus on health professional education. The objectives were to identify best practices, highlight what technological platforms are effective for TBL processes and evaluate educational outcomes in terms of student experience, learning and preference.

DESIGN

A systematic review of published TBL research was undertaken between August and October 2021 and supplemented in September 2022.

DATA SOURCES

ERIC, PsycINFO, Scopus, Embase, Medline, and Cinahl databases were used. The keywords were identified from researchers' knowledge and PICO/PICo framework.

REVIEW METHODS

Titles and abstracts were screened individually by two reviewers for eligibility. Data extraction was undertaken by two researchers independently and checked for consistency by discussion between the two. Articles were appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT).

RESULTS

Out of 656 articles 14 were involved in the final review. All others were rejected due to duplication, ineligibility, or poor quality. The studies were from a range of countries and focussed on a range of health professionals including nursing. Inconsistencies in approaches for TBL, platforms used and mixed results in terms of outcomes were noted. There was no real consensus other than that TBL was equally as effective if carried out online or face-to-face, with no clear differences to outcomes related to satisfaction in online or traditional TBL approaches.

CONCLUSIONS

It is recommended that further research is carried out into the outcomes of TBL on learning and experiences of students in health professional courses. The development and appraisal of integrated TBL platforms should be invested in and infrastructure and resources are put in place to support this.

Planning Library Instruction Research: Building Conceptual Models with Theoretical Frameworks

Engagement with theories and theoretical frameworks in the planning and conduct of research about library instruction, in conjunction with the existing evidence base, can help researchers develop coherent conceptual models to justify the research approach and importance of the research produced. This column describes some of the limitations of common evaluation approaches that lack explicit theoretical framing and provides definitions of concepts that allow practitioners and researchers alike to explore and understand the complexities of educational encounters. Using an illustrative study with a theoretical framework applying sociomaterialism and related theories, this article presents arguments for in-depth explorations of informatics education through qualitative research.

What characterize high and low achieving teams in Interprofessional education: A self-determination theory perspective

OBJECTIVES

Calls to promote team-based interprofessional collaborative practice in managing patients with complex health problems are ubiquitous. However, the literature remains silent on what characterises successful teams in interprofessional education (IPE) and on profiling successful teams. To help conceptualise successful teams, this study investigated the differences in attitudes and achievement between high- and low-performing teams in an online asynchronous and synchronous IPE programme, and the role of autonomous motivation in determining team membership.

METHODS

Using extreme case sampling involving health and social care students, we identified ten high-performing teams and seven low-performing teams based on their team composite scores on three interprofessional collaborative outcomes: team effectiveness, goal achievement, and scores on the readiness assurance test. Each team had five to seven members of diverse backgrounds. Independent t-tests were performed to identify differences in interprofessional collaborative outcomes, namely teamwork and collaboration, patient-centredness, diversity and ethics, community-centeredness, and interprofessional biases for the affective domain and application exercise for the cognitive domain. We employed logistic regression in which autonomous motivation was used to predict group membership.

RESULTS

High-performing teams were characterised as those whose members endorsed or valued "teamwork and collaboration" in IPE simulations. Compared with the low-performing groups, they better recognised and endorsed diversity and ethics, patient-centeredness, and community-centeredness. Membership to high- and low-performing teams was linked to autonomous motivation.

CONCLUSIONS

High-performing teams have higher favourable valuing of important interprofessional collaborative competencies, and membership to which is predicted by autonomous motivation. The results suggest the need to pay special attention to struggling teams to facilitate desirable collaborative competencies, especially in terms of members' motivation. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

Team-Based Learning Experiences of Nursing Students in a Health Assessment Subject: A Qualitative Study

Health assessment as a subject comprises knowledge and practices in which health problems are identified by collecting individual health data. As the subject requires fast learning of voluminous content, it becomes cumbersome. Team-based learning (TBL) has been proposed as an effective teaching and learning strategy in such situations. This study aimed to explore the lived TBL experiences of nursing students from their perspectives in a health assessment subject. This study adopted a qualitative research method. TBL was applied in a health assessment subject at a university in South Korea, as a 2-credit course for 16 weeks. Twelve sophomore nursing students who enrolled in a health assessment subject were the participants. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi's method. The results contained twelve themes categorized into five theme clusters: "Getting ready for learning", "Effective class promoting concentration and immersion", "Proactive participation in a non-hierarchical learning environment", "Complementary collaboration", and "Sense of burden". The findings suggest that TBL is an effective teaching and learning strategy for the discipline, imparting positive experiences such as class engagement, teamwork, learning outcomes, and improvement of problem-solving skills if students' role conflicts and continuous learning burden can be addressed.

Materials matter: Understanding the importance of sociomaterial assemblages for OSCE candidate performance

INTRODUCTION

The OSCE is a sociomaterial assemblage-a meshing together of human and material components producing multiple effects. Materials matter because they shape candidate performance, with potentially calamitous career consequences if materials influence performance unjustly. Although the OSCE literature refers to materials, few papers study the sociomateriality of OSCEs. Therefore, we explored OSCE stakeholders' talk about sociomaterial assemblages to better understand their importance for candidate performance.

METHODS

We conducted 15 focus groups with OSCE candidates (n = 42), examiners (n = 20) and simulated patients (n = 17) after an Australian postgraduate nursing OSCE. Sociomateriality informed our team-based framework analysis of data.

RESULTS

Participants identified a multiplicity of OSCE materials (objects, technologies and spaces) thought to matter for candidate performance. Candidates' unfamiliarity with materials and missing or malfunctioning materials were reported to yield numerous negative impacts (eg cognitive overload, negative affect, time-wasting), thereby adversely affecting candidate performance. Both examiners and candidates made micro-adjustments to sociomaterial assemblages during the OSCE in order to make it work (eg candidates saying what they would do rather than doing it). Sometimes, such tinkering extended so far that sociomaterial assemblages were ruptured (eg examiners ignoring rubrics to help pass candidates), potentially influencing OSCE standardisation.

DISCUSSION

Our novel empirical study extends previous conceptual work by illustrating wide-ranging sociomaterial assemblages influencing OSCE candidate performance. Further research is now needed employing sociomaterial approaches to further elucidate sociomaterial entanglements in diverse OSCEs. We encourage OSCE stakeholders to become more attuned to the productive nature of materials within all stages of OSCE design and implementation.