Interprofessional team meetings: Opportunities for informal interprofessional learning

Area of Science:

• Healthcare education
• Workplace learning
• Interprofessional collaboration

Background:

• Existing research on interprofessional learning primarily focuses on formal education programs.
• There is a need to understand informal learning occurring within daily healthcare practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore interprofessional learning within regular interprofessional team meetings.
• To understand the complexities of learning processes among health professionals in everyday practice.

Main Methods:

• Observations of interprofessional team meetings.
• Semi-structured interviews with health professionals.

Main Results:

• Interprofessional team meetings serve as a practical, efficient, and relevant platform for interprofessional learning.
• Observed benefits include improvements for individuals, teams, and patient care.
• Learning dynamics are influenced by individual learning perceptions, meeting participation, and the presence of medical professionals.

Conclusions:

• Interprofessional team meetings offer significant informal learning opportunities for health professionals.
• Further research is needed to help healthcare teams maximize these informal learning avenues.
• Understanding influencing factors can enhance the effectiveness of workplace interprofessional learning.