Palliative care: a suitable setting for undergraduate interprofessional education

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Education
• Interprofessional Collaboration
• Palliative Care

Background:

• High-quality palliative care delivery necessitates effective interprofessional teamworking among health and social care professionals.
• Palliative care serves as an ideal context for introducing interprofessional teamworking concepts early in professional education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the experiences of conducting undergraduate interprofessional workshops in palliative care.
• To evaluate the impact of these workshops on medical, nursing, social work, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy students.

Main Methods:

• Workshops involved undergraduate students from various health and social care disciplines.
• Family carers actively participated, sharing real-life experiences to ground the learning in clinical reality.
• Workshops were sustained over several years, offering a unique, unedited learning environment.

Main Results:

• Students reported valuing and enjoying the collaborative learning experience, finding it moving, informative, and interesting.
• Family carers appreciated the opportunity to share their perspectives and experiences with students.
• The workshops demonstrated sustained engagement and positive student feedback over multiple years.

Conclusions:

• Palliative care is a suitable and effective subject for undergraduate interprofessional education.
• Integrating real-world experiences with family carer involvement enhances the value of interprofessional learning.
• Sustained interprofessional education in palliative care can foster essential teamworking skills for future professionals.