Exploring professionalism through interdisciplinary group creativity and diversity: A case study

Abstract

Background: This article examines group creativity and diversity across healthcare and non-healthcare disciplines and how they can assist students in constructing their own understandings and knowledge of professionalism. Methods: A total of 30 students from different tertiary levels and across disciplines participated in the study. They explored either a gallery or museum and examined an artefact relating to professionalism. We evaluated whether and how students experienced this activity as enhancing their creativity and learnings of professionalism via survey results and thematic analyses of their reflective essays and semi-structured interviews. Results: Our findings showed that the group work increased students’ understandings of professionalism and their appreciation of the perspectives and skills of one another. The creative aspect of the task was fun and engaging, and group diversity enabled different opinions and perspectives to be heard and shared. This is analogous to a professional working environment. Themes generated from the essays were: (a) intrinsic motivation, (b) diversity, (c) learnings of professionalism, and (d) challenge encountered. Conclusions: The results of this research will make a meaningful contribution to existing literature by empirically demonstrating that students from different disciplines could better construct their own understandings of professionalism when their learning activities were performed in an authentically creative and diverse setting. This educational concept is underpinned by different types of creativities that are not mutually exclusive. It is hoped that this first piece of evidence will stimulate more studies on utilizing group creativity and diversity in healthcare education. Trial registration: Not applicable.