Promoting interdisciplinarity through educational initiative: A qualitative evaluation

This paper describes a multi-professional teaching innovation that took place at The University of Manchester during October 2001. Ideas for the project were first established in December 2000 when a multi-professional team of educationalists began exploring ways in which three disparate student groups could be brought together as part of an integrated learning activity (Barr 2002). For this reason, a problem-based learning scenario was developed to encourage nursing, midwifery, and medical students to share their previous knowledge and principles of care. In addition, the students were also asked to identify the type(s) of information they felt should be included in a user guide for new parents regarding the uncomplicated labour and puerperium. In total 10-second year nursing, 17-third year midwifery and 13-fourth year medical students volunteered to take part. These were subsequently divided into five integrated problem-based learning groups each supported by two teachers reflecting similar multi-professional backgrounds. In this paper, the discussion will explore a series of themes identified as being of major import by students and tutors during the qualitative phase of the study namely: 1. Working in teams 2. Sharing knowledge, skills, and perspectives on care 3. Learning to interact in multi-professional groups. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.