Student perceptions of cultural immersion during an Interprofessional programme

In New Zealand undergraduate health professional degrees focus on aspects of indigenous (Maori) health. Formal and informal feedback suggests that for individual students the impact of those components in respect of Maori health varies. Separate and sequential interprofessional groups of students from seven health professions participated in an innovative and immersive Interprofessional programme. All participating students had prior exposure during their respective degrees to theoretical perspectives of indigenous health. At the end of each and every 5-week long programme each cohort of student contributed to a focus group discussion. Analysis revealed that for these groups of students the real-life exposure to an indigenous community was positively regarded and, in some instances, transformative. The students also reported that the 'lived' experience in an indigenous community built upon and in many cases extended prior learning of indigenous health. Whilst the results are encouraging it must be noted that the students who were exposed to this experience represented less than 10% of the entire student population. It is clear that a key challenge for us is to enable more students to be exposed to this powerful learning experience.