Nurses learning family-oriented interprofessional collaboration

A two-year family-oriented interprofessional education programme for professionals working in the field of primary services (e.g. health care, social welfare, school, day care) was started in the Province of Oulu, Finland in 2000. The programme aimed to provide the participants (n = 76) with skills to work with families in interprofessional collaboration. The study investigated the views and working methods of all the 14 nurses who participated in the course.

Qualitative study employing the content analysis method.

The data were collected by using open-ended questions at the beginning and at the end of the education and analysed with the method of content analysis.

Initially, the nurses were aware of the significance and the premises of family-oriented interprofessional collaboration, but seldom implemented them in practice. At the end of the programme, their working methods had changed from expert- to client- and family-oriented direction. They began to appreciate interprofessional collaboration and found that client- and family-oriented working methods supported families' own resources.

In order to change the theoretical framework and practical working methods of the professionals a sufficiently long process of education is needed where the interprofessional collaboration is put into practice already during the education. Even though this education programme was developed and implemented for professionals working in the primary social and health care services in the Northern Finland, we believe that it is applicable to the teaching of interprofessional collaboration in different settings in different countries.