Interprofessional Collaborating: A Model That Prepares Undergraduate Teachers and Social Workers for Interprofessional Practice in Schools

Abstract

The Health Promoting School (HPS) premises its approach on interprofessional collaboration. Despite this, there are few studies into how Australian, Victorian social workers and teachers prepare for interprofessional collaboration within health promoting schools. There are few studies into how undergraduate social workers and teachers understand the HPS school setting and the role of social workers and teachers in promoting educational achievement and wellbeing within a HS school site. There are even fewer studies in how undergraduate social workers and teachers experience units of study delivered using interprofessional education (IPE) approaches.

Enhancing Competency-Based Social Work Skills Through Service Learning and Interprofessional Education in a Student-Run Free Healthcare Clinic

“…The CSWE Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards hold that social workers engage in interprofessional collaboration to assess, intervene, and evaluate individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities (CSWE, 2022). IPE has been instrumental in helping develop students' knowledge, skills, and values (Cramer et al, 2019), self-efficacy (Keshmiri & Ghelmani, 2023;Nurumal et al, 2020;Williams et al, 2017), communication skills (Bell et al, 2019;Kermani et al, 2022), and interprofessional collaboration (Adamson et al, 2020;Kermani et al, 2022;Rubin et al, 2020;Testa & Renwick, 2020;Wilson et al, 2021) that lead to improved health outcomes (Cramer et al, 2019;McKinlay et al, 2019;Pittenger et al, 2019). In addition, students can acquire greater knowledge of their own discipline while learning and understanding the professional roles and responsibilities of other professionals as part of an interprofessional healthcare team (Bridges et al, 2011;van Diggele et al, 2020).…”