Learning to work collaboratively: Nurses’ views of their pre-registration interprofessional education and its impact on practice

One of the challenges of contemporary health care is the need for health and social care professionals to work differently to meet the complex needs of patients/clients. However it cannot be assumed that these professionals have been prepared with the skills and confidence to collaborate effectively, outside of traditional professional boundaries. Interprofessional education (IPE) is well established as an effective learning and teaching approach to prepare practitioners for collaborative practice at the point of qualification (Department of Health, 2001, Hale, 2003, Morison et al., 2003, Department of Health, 2006 and Hammick et al., 2007). The phenomenological study reported in this paper sought to follow up a group of newly qualified adult nurses at six months post-qualification. These nurses had undertaken a pre-registration curriculum in which classroom-based interprofessional learning was well embedded and formally assessed within their three year programme. Data from eight in depth interviews were analysed and five key themes were emerged: common understanding of IPE; teaching and learning; understanding of professional roles; stereotypes; influence of the practice environment. The outcome of the study suggested IPE should be as practice focused as possible to improve its relevance to nursing practice. This study contributed to the development of an innovative curriculum which provides the opportunity for nurses to integrate IPE theory within their collaborative working practice.