SIESTA: a quick interprofessional learning activity fostering collaboration and communication between paediatric nursing trainees and medical students

BACKGROUND

Interprofessional education has emerged as a key concept in education of health professionals over the last 20 years. Positive effects of interprofessional education have been shown, but it has proved to be more time-consuming than traditional teaching methods. We therefore developed a 30-minute interprofessional learning activity, using peer-teaching methods. We were interested in effects on and ways of interprofessional learning, including conditions and resources that make it successful despite limited time.

METHODS

Speed InterprofESsional Peer Teaching PaediAtric (SIESTA) was developed in the context of an interprofessional training ward. 20 paediatric nursing trainees and 20 medical students were enrolled in the study. Two students from each profession participated in a total of four SIESTA sessions each, supervised by registered paediatric nurses and paediatricians. We used a mixed-methods approach of quantitative and qualitative data (questionnaires, semi-guided focus group interviews) to evaluate self-perceived interprofessional competencies, interprofessional learning gains and ways of interprofessional learning.

RESULTS

Questionnaires were obtained from all participants (n = 40) and n = 26 took part in the group interviews. Participants from both professions reported an increase in self-perceived understanding of interprofessional roles and tasks. Communication and cooperation emerged as important aspects. The workplace-based nature of SIESTA promoted interprofessional learning, while peer teaching fostered a safe learning environment. Regarding time constraints participants suggested thorough preparation and structuring by facilitators as a solution.

CONCLUSIONS

Our short interprofessional peer teaching activity showed promising results. Participants reported enhanced interprofessional competencies and provided suggestions for successful learning in limited time. Further studies should include an objective assessment of the interprofessional learning progress. The SIESTA concept can be easily adapted to other medical fields, providing interprofessional learning opportunities for many more health care professionals to come.

[Interprofessional approaches in undergraduate medical education]

Social change and the subsequent increase in the complexity of patient care create new challenges for all health care professionals that can only be met by close collaboration. Good cooperation between professionals from all healthcare backgrounds has proven to be essential and should therefore play a larger role in educational and study contexts.It is for this reason that over the past few years more and more countries are requiring cooperative skills and competencies in formal medical training and consequently implementing this training in their healthcare systems. This is certainly true in countries such as Sweden, Canada, England, and most recently Switzerland, where interprofessional teaching is being systematically introduced into medical training.The current situation in Germany is demonstrated by the selected projects from the Robert Bosch Foundation's support program "Operation Team." The existing need for interprofessional qualification opportunities and advanced training programs for teaching staff, the need for exam content for medical state examinations, as well as to establish a structural framework and research structure in the area of interprofessional education and competence development are outlined and discussed.