Development of an integrative practice placement model for students in health care

VireTori, the interprofessional Empowerment Market, is both an easily accessible health service point for citizens and a provider of placements for students. This study describes undergraduate health care students' experiences of learning at VireTori, and explores how the integrative pedagogy model was executed during student placements. The integrative pedagogy model was developed for the educational framework of the placement. The participants of the study were 42 undergraduate students. The data were collected in 2010 through six focus-group interviews and background questionnaires, and were analysed using inductive content analysis. The results were categorised into personal, collaborative and organisational learning contexts and reported as the experiences of happy and unhappy students. Third-year students with a five-week or longer placement had more positive experiences than the fourth-year students with a one-week placement. There were great differences between the experiences of happy and unhappy students concerning professional roles, work orientations and scopes of action, and these were not entirely connected with the length of placement. Health care students can gain expertise through a practice placement in which the principles of integrative pedagogy have been adopted. Critique concerning the model and VireTori framework will be presented.