The team builder: The role of nurses facilitating interprofessional student teams at a Swedish clinical training ward

Interprofessional education (IPE) is an educational strategy attracting increased interest as a method to train future health care professionals. One example of IPE is the clinical training ward, where students from different health care professions practice together. At these wards the students work in teams with the support of facilitators. The professional composition of the team of facilitators usually corresponds to that of the students. However, previous studies have revealed that nurse facilitators are often in the majority, responsible for student nurses’ profession specific facilitation as well as interprofessional team orientated facilitation. The objective of this study was to describe how nurses act when facilitating interprofessional student teams at a clinical training ward. The research design was ethnography and data were collected through participant observations and interviews. The analysis revealed the four strategies used when facilitating teams of interprofessional students to enhance collaborative work and professional understanding. The nurse facilitator as a team builder is a new and exciting role for nurses taking on the responsibility of facilitating interprofessional student teams. Future research needs to explore how facilitating nurses balance profession specific and team oriented facilitating within the environment of an interprofessional learning context.