Does gender matter? Differences between students at an interprofessional training ward

Studies on graduates' transitions from education into clinical work highlight inequalities concerning how women and men experience their professional learning and development. This study explores how female and male students from different programs within the health care education system (i.e. medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy programmes) experience an interprofessional training ward (IPTW) as a part of their professional identity formation. Students from the medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy programmes collaborate in teams during two weeks at one of three IPTWs at the medical school, Linköping University. They together take the responsibility for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of the patients, albeit with professional supervisors as support. During 2010 to 2011, 454 (93%) of the 488 students who practiced at the IPTWs answered a questionnaire on their experiences of the IPTW. The students stated that the IPTW had positively influenced their professional development. The female and male medical students were significantly less positive than other female and male students, respectively, concerning the value of IPTW. The male students from all programmes were slightly, but significantly, less positive than all the female students. These findings show that students "do gender" as an integral part of the educational practice. It is important to scrutinise the IPTW as an educational practice, influencing students' preparation for future work. Gender should be discussed not only during the IPTW rotation but also in general during the curriculum for all healthcare programmes.