Situated Learning and Interprofessional Education: An Educational Strategy Using an Apprenticeship Model to Develop Research Skills for Practice

Interprofessional education (IPE) offers an opportunity to train health professional students to develop research skills collaboratively, while working on authentic healthcare problems. The situated learning educational model offers a unique way of structuring IPE experiences to incorporate the healthcare context, Communities of Practice, and meaningful participation of all learners. This paper will discuss an educational strategy developed to support the role progression of interprofessional research students within a project that is embedded in an authentic healthcare problem that has implications for IPE program development. The authors present a visual model that supports understanding of the development of knowledge and skills of learners that has implications for IPE, educational training, and research practice. Received: 09/21/2017 Accepted: 03/24/2018 © 2018 Zakrajsek & Schuster. This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. H IP & Situated Learning and Interprofessional Education EDUCATIONAL STRATEGY 3(3):eP1147 | 2 Introduction Academic health professional programs are becoming increasingly aware of the need to prepare professionals for working collaboratively in healthcare environments in order to enhance quality and cost-effective care (Institute of Medicine, 2003; Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel, 2011; Paul & Peterson, 2001; World Health Organization, 2010). With this recognized need in mind, professional programs within higher education institutions are developing curricula which provides students opportunities to learn with and from one another through an Interprofessional Education (IPE) approach. IPE is understood as a situation when two or more professions engage in a collaborative learning process with the aim of enhancing engagement and quality of care (Alinier, Harwood, Harwood, Montague, & Ruparelia, 2014; Center for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education, 2002). Furthermore, IPE reflects the highly collaborative health work environment in which many professionals practice. Despite the recognition of need for IPE learning opportunities, a review of literature reveals that barriers to successfully implementing an IPE experience for students in health professional programs include coordinating schedules between students within programs, faculty buy-in to engage in and design the IPE experiences, limited resources for physical space, and faculty and student availability within professional programs, as well as a hesitancy, on the faculty’s part, to become engaged in a new approach to educational practice (Alinier, et al., 2014; Cooper, Carlisle, Gibbs & Watkins, 2001; Pecukonis, Doyle, & Bliss, 2008; Reeves, Goldman, & Oandasan, 2007). Furthermore, in a study that examined students’ perceptions of their engagement in IPE, Michalec, et al., (2017) and colleagues found that one significant barrier to IPE is students not having the chance to engage in an authentic health setting as part of the learning experience. “Simply put, having not had the opportunity to ‘try on’ or even see the roles of their own or other health professionals in actual health care settings, students had significant difficulty cultivating and adopting a professional identity, let alone embracing the tenets of interprofessionality or an interprofessional identity” (p.14). This study also noted the importance of faculty presence in modeling and providing feedback in impacting students’ attitudes and willingness to engage in IPE learning. Furthermore, faculty feedback based on evaluation has been shown to afford accountability, and to prevent student disengagement and apathetic attitudes towards IPE experiences (Michalec, et al.,