Intertwined, multidirectional and interactive: A qualitative study of students’ experiences of interprofessional competencies during an oral pathology module

Introduction: Interprofessional competencies have been studied using quantitative methods, predominately involving self-reported measures of knowledge and attitudes of students from a limited number of professions. There is scope to investigate interprofessional competencies using qualitative approaches within underrepresented health professions. We aimed to investigate interprofessional competency development of oral health, medical laboratory sciences and dental surgery students during an interprofessional education initiative. Methods: We used an interpretive perspective to frame this qualitative study involving 15 students and 3 facilitators from the three professions during an oral pathology module composed of three 90-minute sessions. Reflective prompts about role understanding and interprofessional communication were used to generate written responses analysed with a reflexive thematic approach and interpreted in relation to interprofessional competencies. Results: Not only were students learning about role understanding and interprofessional communication, but they were also learning about interprofessional values, coordination and collaborative decision making, reflexivity and teamwork. Students appear to experience these competencies as intertwined, multidirectional and interactive. Conclusions: The experience of interconnectedness among interprofessional competencies should be further investigated with students from health professions beyond medicine. This interconnectedness should be considered when designing, teaching and assessing interprofessional competencies. Additionally, the combination of students should reflect professional work relationships and include currently underrepresented professions.