The Centre for interprofessional work-place learning (TVEPS) in Bergen, Norway, offers interprofessional workplace learning for students from health and social welfare professions from the University of Bergen and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. TVEPS practice will now be compulsory for all health and social welfare professions students in Bergen �" expanding from 200 to 1000 students pr year.
In TVEPS we send interprofessional student groups with 4-5 students, one from each profession, to practice arenas in Bergen and surrounding municipalities. Our students come from 17 different professions, among them medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, nursing, pharmacy, music therapy, nutrition, psychology, speach and language pathology and law. Practice arenas are mostly, but not only, situated within primary care and include nursing homes, home care services, rehabilitation departments and healthy life centres.
The overall learning objective for the students is interprofessional teamwork, with three sub-aims:
Learn to communicate skills to students from other health professions.
Learn interprofessional real-life care of patients.
Learn about other health professions and knowledge they possess.
The practice placement lasts for one day where the student group meets two patients. Through an in-depth interview with the patients the students disentangle the patients’ strengths and weaknesses and identify challenges that the patients need help with to improve their everyday lives. After the practice placement day, the students develop a carefully tailored care plan for the patients. The plans are discussed with the personnel at a dialogue meeting facilitated by educators at TVEPS one week later. Through patient contact, development of a tailored care plan and dialogue with the health personnel about this care plan, the students learn about real-life patientcare and about interprofessional collaboration. In addition, the health personnel receive valuable input on their healthcare routines and the patients may gain improved quality of life through the tailored care plans.
Disclosures:
In accordance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education’s Standards for Commercial Support, adopted by the Joint Accreditors for Interprofessional Continuing Education, the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education has a conflict of interest policy that requires that all individuals involved in the development of activity content disclose their relevant financial relationships with commercial interests. All potential conflicts of interest that arise based upon these financial relationships are resolved prior to the educational activity.
Elizabeth Kalb, Kathy Riedford, Tracy Kinner, Constance Swenty, Marilyn Ostendorf, Ane Johannessen, Anders Baerheim, Catherine Demko, Ellen Luebbers
declare no vested interest in or affiliation with any commercial interest offering financial support for this interprofessional continuing education activity, or any affiliation with a commercial interest whose philosophy could potentially bias their presentation.
