In a Danish Interprofessional Training Unit (ITU), the clinical tutors have succeeded in developing a safe learning environment combined with challenging the students by giving them responsibility for the patient's care and rehabilitation. In the ITU, students improved their uniprofessional and interprofessional knowledge and capability while strengthening their professional identity. It was, therefore, decided to make an attempt to transfer these interprofessional learning and teaching methods to another setting. The aims of this study were to evaluate whether the students learned about interprofessional collaboration and strengthened their professional identity and whether the clinical tutors could create a safe and challenging learning environment. Clinical tutors from the professions occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and nursing together planned the pedagogical approach and practical organization of two pilot studies in an orthopedic ward. After the intervention, focus group interviews of students and clinical tutors were performed and analyzed. The findings indicated that a one-week interprofessional clinical placement can contribute to students learning about interprofessional collaboration and to their development of professional identity. The data from the clinical tutors indicated that they needed to create a safe and challenging learning environment but emphasized that a thorough planning and continuous monitoring and adjusting of the clinical placement is necessary for success. The study documents that it is possible to create successful interprofessional learning opportunities in a normal ward environment in a restricted time frame. This knowledge can be applied to other ward settings where interprofessional clinical training is a natural possibility.
Keywords: Interprofessional education; professional identity; work-based learning.