Reflecting on care: Using reflective journaling to evaluate interprofessional education and clinical practicum experiences in two urban primary care clinics

This paper presents the findings of a study that integrated reflective journaling into an interprofessional primary care clinical rotation to evaluate student experiences with the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies. Student teams consisting of students from three different health profession programs (advanced practice nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry) were placed in primary care clinics to provide team-based care and led monthly case conferences focused on interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP). Students completed an online weekly reflective journaling assignment, guided by four structured questions derived from the IPEC core competencies. Overall, 171 journal entries from 57 students were analyzed for themes correlating with the IPEC competency domains. The students' reflective journaling helped reaffirm several assumptions and observations regarding student experiences with IPE in addition to revealing insights that were not entirely expected. Students noted mostly positive experiences within the Roles & Responsibilities and Interprofessional Communication domains. Reflections on Teams/Teamwork emphasized the importance of clinic space, workflow and team makeup/consistency in facilitating teamwork. The Value/Ethics domain resulted in the least number of entries suggesting more deliberate instruction and direction may be beneficial for students. Other institutions looking to develop IPE experiences in primary care should consider using reflective journaling (specifically using the IPEC core competencies to frame the questions) as part of evaluating the student experiences.