Developing new possibilities for interprofessional learning- students’ experience of learning together in the ambulance service

Abstract

Background It is known that setting and context matters, and contextual factors influence interprofessional education (IPE). Activities developed in a new setting should therefore be evaluated to determine students’ experiences and learning. IPE in the ambulance service may present a new setting for interprofessional learning (IPL). Aim The aim of this study was to explore undergraduate students’ experiences of collaboration and learning together during their clinical rotation in the ambulance service. Study design and method A mixed convergent parallel design was used to describe nursing and medical students’ experiences of collaboration and learning together during their clinical rotation in the ambulance service during autumn 2019. Two group interviews with nursing students (n = 20; response rate 80%) were conducted and the medical students (n = 40; response rate 72.5%) answered a self-assessment questionnaire regarding their IPE. The group discussions were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used to describe the medical students’ self-assessed experiences and competencies in interprofessional collaboration. Results In the context of the ambulance service, some of the challenges included, the team vary daily, a context that can be unpredictable, and the team being required to make decisions in various situations with limited support. The context presented good opportunities to learn together, since they faced a broad variety of situations and had opportunities to follow patients through the chain of care. Conclusion The students’ experiences show that the ambulance service offers possibilities for IPL. The ambulance service enhanced the students’ learning in an unfamiliar environment, encouraging them to develop collaborative learning strategies and situational leadership regardless of established hierarchical structures and stereotypes that are sometimes present in other parts of the health care service. Ethical approval By the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. No: 2019–03595.

Facilitating interprofessional learning: experiences of using a digital activity for training handover of critically ill patients between a primary health care centre and ambulance services – a qualitative study

“…Open access interventions and care, 1 it has been shown that within the ambulance service, students can gain proficiency in nursing, medical and collaborative skills. 2 As the number of undergraduate nursing students completing clinical rotations in the ambulance service has increased, so have the expectations for activities to be conducted to support the students' IPL. However, different student professions undertaking clinical rotations in the ambulance service are limited.…”

What to prepare to be an ambulance nurse? Scoping review of ambulance nurse competencies

“…The prehospital system is associated with an interdisciplinary team (Abelsson & Lindwall, 2012). During nursing education, it is important to take an interprofessional education (IPE) approach to foster collaboration between students (Astuti et al, 2021;Conte et al, 2022). Interprofessional collaborative approaches in healthcare are closely related to issues or policies on patient safety (Castrèn et al, 2017;Slater et al, 2022).…”

Balancing structure and flexibility in the ambulance service: the pursuit of professional judgement in caring and learning

“…On the other hand, Swedish governmental reports highlight challenges with one-to-one models due to a lack of access to competent preceptors and clinical placements in the Swedish educational system [74,198], suggesting a need for developing flexible models for supervision to facilitate access to clinical placements [198]. There is research that addresses other models for supervision in the AS, for example, interprofessional learning models, which have proven to be beneficial for supporting learning for undergraduate RNs and medical students [203]. However, this latter study did not compare the studied model with one-to-one supervision models, and the implementation and practical conditions in the daily work of the ambulance team during supervision in this model was sparsely described, making comparisons difficult between the two.…”