Preparing collaborative practice-ready graduates – an exploration of practice tutors’ and clinical educators’ perceptions of practice-based interprofessional education

Practice-based interprofessional education (IPE) can be complex to implement because it necessitates the interaction of different professions to achieve educational objectives in busy clinical settings. The aim of this project was to explore the experiences of practice tutors and clinical educators of facilitating practice-based IPE for health care students. Three focus groups were conducted in three teaching hospitals in Ireland. The focus group discussions were semi-structured. The discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and the data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. There were 22 participants in total from a range of health professions. Three themes were developed through analysis of the data: Workplace culture lays the foundation; Staffing matters; and Enhanced and authentic learning through clinical practice. The first theme demonstrated that the culture of the clinical site greatly impacts interprofessional collaboration and thus the value placed on practice-based IPE. The second theme highlighted that clinical educators face ongoing logistical barriers to implementing practice-based IPE. However, efforts have been made by clinical educators to overcome these barriers and develop strategies to implement IPE that are feasible in their workplace. Providing training for clinical educators in delivering practice-based IPE was not perceived to be a useful approach to improve delivery of practice-based IPE due to time pressures and existing high training demands for clinical educators. Instead, forming an interprofessional network of clinical educators was reported to be effective in helping to overcome logistical issues and in providing the support needed to successfully implement practice-based IPE. The final theme recognised that clinical placement provides an opportunity for enhanced learning in interprofessional collaboration and teamwork; however, participants noted that students may benefit from more classroom-based preparation on this topic before their clinical placement. Practice tutors and clinical educators face many challenges when trying to deliver and facilitate practice-based IPE. Developing IPE networks within teaching hospitals and providing resources that can be used in interprofessional tutorials may be helpful in setting up IPE programmes within the clinical education setting. Thus, fostering collaborative practice to improve outcomes for patients or clients and support more integrated networks of care.