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http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2563
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| Title: | Interprofessional education : an analysis of the introduction of a common core in curricula for selected health professions |
| Authors: | Almås, Synnøve Hofseth |
| Keywords: | curricula reforms
common core
interprofessional education
interprofessional capability
habitus |
| Issue Date: | 12-Dec-2007 |
| Publisher: | The University of Bergen |
| Abstract: | The aim of the study:
- to to identify cultural differences between various professions and educational
institutions
- to to explore how the implementation of the common core in curricula influenced
students’ professional habitus (identities)
- when taught separately
- when taught interprofessionally with longer or shorter duration
- to to identify whether, and if so how, differences in the dimensions of interprofessional
education affect students’ perception of their own and of another health care
profession’s cultural capital (competence)
Context:
The Norwegian government introduced a common core into the curricula (modified curricula)
for all health and social educational programmes in the conviction that this would result in
more collaboratively and thereby more effective and efficient health care. It called upon
profession-oriented studies to introduce interprofessional education across the health and
social disciplines with opportunities for interaction in the expectation that this would reinforce
students’ perceptions of their interprofessionalism and their habitus as health workers.
Theoretical framework:
Bourdieu’s theory of the educational system was chosen to shed light on the implementation
process of the common core and to interpret interprofessional education in health care.
Methodological approach:
A comparative, explorative design was chosen to study health care students’ perceptions of
interprofessionalism and of their own and of other professions’ cultural capital. Different
health care students at Oslo University College and Ålesund University College participated
in ‘StudData’, a national database for studies of recruitment and qualifications in professions.
The students were asked to respond to statements in a questionnaire about
interprofessionalism. Students at Bergen University College and the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, with different duration and modes of interprofessional education were also
selected in order to get an insight into the students’ socialisation process concerning
interprofessional cultural capital. All data were analysed using SPSS; comprising cross-tables,
one-way analysis of variance, while STATlab was applied to carry out correspondence
analysis and analysis of hierarchical classification.
Results:
Part I Students’ perceptions of interprofessionalism
Students from five professions valued interprofessionalism differently. The occupational
therapy (OT) and nursing students were more positive towards interprofessional education
and collaborative practice than were the radiography and medical laboratory science students.
Nursing students from four educational institutions understood interprofessionalism
differently, those at Bjerregaardsgt. and Ullevål being more positive than those at Aker and
Ålesund. Students with a modified curriculum appreciated interprofessionalism more highly
than did those with an unmodified curriculum (before the revising of the curricula). The
results showed that students having the common core implemented as interprofessional
education valued interprofessional studies and work more highly than those with the common
core implemented as uniprofessional education. Students with longer interprofessional
education appreciated interprofessional practice more highly than those with shorter
interprofessional education.
Part II Students’ perceptions of own and the other profession’s capability
The mature OT and physiotherapy (PT) students at the Karolinska Institutet, with longer
experience in health care before starting the study than corresponding students at Bergen
University College had a broader view of their own and of other professions’ cultural capital.
The younger OT and PT students at Bergen University College, with less experience in health
care, expressed a narrower perception of an OT’s and a PT’s cultural capital.
Discussion:
The implementation process of the common core in the curricula and the results from
empirical data of the student groups’ perceptions are discussed in relation to theory, biosocial
variables (as part of students’ habitus), and result of previous research in the field. Finally,
findings are seen in relation to how to improve students’ habitus as health workers and their
interprofessional cultural capital. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2563 |
| ISBN: | 978-82-308-0479-7 (print version) |
| Appears in Collections: | Section for Social Medicine
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