TY - JOUR
T1 - Interprofessional education—situations of a university in Hong Kong and major hurdles to teachers and students
AU - Li, Joyce T.S.
AU - Chau, Janita P.C.
AU - Wong, Samuel Y.S.
AU - Lau, Ann S.N.
AU - Chan, Wallace C.H.
AU - Yip, Peggy P.S.
AU - Yang, Yijian
AU - Ku, Fred K.T.
AU - Sze, Felix Y.B.
AU - King, Irwin K.C.
AU - Lee, Vivian W.Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by a Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant for the 2019–2022 Triennium from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Funding Information:
Based on our experience, we would like to propose a few suggestions to overcome the obstacles with IPE. First, IPE programs could begin with selected disciplines within one faculty, then expand to involve more students from different faculties. In our case, we started our program within the Faculty of Medicine with the medical, nursing, and pharmacy disciplines. Our survey results showed that most students had inadequate knowledge of IPE, indicating that IPE was a novel concept in our institution. It is expected that both teachers and students take time to get used to studying and collaborating with their counterparts from other majors. Second, strategies should be developed to overcome the problems with academic schedules and calendars. Implementing the IPE course in the summer semester would allow higher flexibility for teachers and students, as they normally have a lighter workload during the summer term. Besides, it would be beneficial for teachers to introduce basic concepts through asynchronous modules or e-learning modules. Students can view the materials on their own so that they can spend the majority of the class time working with each other. It also allows students from different disciplines to attain a similar level of background knowledge which would facilitate discussion and collaboration (). Third, technical support from the institutional level should be provided to teachers. IPE requires collaboration between teachers from different disciplines. Thus, administrative and financial supports are needed for the effective organization of teaching activities and allocation of human resources (; ). It would be beneficial to set up a centralized system for lining up resources. At CUHK, we have the teaching development grant funded by the University Grant Commission to support IPE development. The system should allow teachers to look for potential collaborating partners from other disciplines to facilitate IPE. In addition, training should be provided to teachers to improve curriculum design and enhance students’ learning outcomes. Fourth, the outcomes and impacts of IPE should be evaluated from time to time. Suitable tools should be adopted to assess learning outcomes and competencies, such as professional knowledge, practical skill, interpersonal skill, and communication skill. Teachers’ and students’ comments would be valuable in guiding the development of this new pedagogy.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Li, Chau, Wong, Lau, Chan, Yip, Yang, Ku, Sze, King and Lee.
PY - 2022/7/29
Y1 - 2022/7/29
N2 - Studies have provided evidence that Interprofessional Education (IPE) can improve learners’ attitudes, knowledge, skills, behaviors, and competency. Traditionally, IPE is commonly seen in the healthcare professional training in tertiary education. Aging is a global issue that requires more than just a single healthcare sector. It requires interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding to tackle the issues. Therefore, IPE is essential for nurturing university students to tackle the ever-changing global challenges. In addition, different hurdles can hinder IPE development. To have a better understanding of the feasibility, acceptance, and educational value of IPE in Hong Kong, we conducted a cross-sectional quantitative study. We invited teachers and students from a Hong Kong university to fill in an online survey that evaluated their understanding and participation in IPE, their attitude toward IPE, and the barriers to developing IPE from March to June 2020. Among the 37 academic staff and 572 students who completed the survey, 20 (54.1%) teachers and 422 (73.8%) students had never heard of IPE before, and 26 (70.3%) teachers and 510 (89.2%) students had never participated in any IPE activities. Major barriers reported by teachers included an increase in teaching load (72.9%), lack of administrative support (72.9%), lack of financial support and limited budget (67.5%), difficulty to make logistic arrangements (64.8%), and problems with academic schedules and calendars (62.1%). The survey findings revealed that despite the positive attitude of university teachers and students toward IPE, barriers that could hinder the development of IPE included heavy teaching and administrative load and logistic arrangement for classroom arrangement and academic scheduling involving multiple faculties.
AB - Studies have provided evidence that Interprofessional Education (IPE) can improve learners’ attitudes, knowledge, skills, behaviors, and competency. Traditionally, IPE is commonly seen in the healthcare professional training in tertiary education. Aging is a global issue that requires more than just a single healthcare sector. It requires interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding to tackle the issues. Therefore, IPE is essential for nurturing university students to tackle the ever-changing global challenges. In addition, different hurdles can hinder IPE development. To have a better understanding of the feasibility, acceptance, and educational value of IPE in Hong Kong, we conducted a cross-sectional quantitative study. We invited teachers and students from a Hong Kong university to fill in an online survey that evaluated their understanding and participation in IPE, their attitude toward IPE, and the barriers to developing IPE from March to June 2020. Among the 37 academic staff and 572 students who completed the survey, 20 (54.1%) teachers and 422 (73.8%) students had never heard of IPE before, and 26 (70.3%) teachers and 510 (89.2%) students had never participated in any IPE activities. Major barriers reported by teachers included an increase in teaching load (72.9%), lack of administrative support (72.9%), lack of financial support and limited budget (67.5%), difficulty to make logistic arrangements (64.8%), and problems with academic schedules and calendars (62.1%). The survey findings revealed that despite the positive attitude of university teachers and students toward IPE, barriers that could hinder the development of IPE included heavy teaching and administrative load and logistic arrangement for classroom arrangement and academic scheduling involving multiple faculties.
KW - collaborative learning
KW - experiential learning
KW - Interprofessional Education
KW - pedagogy
KW - service-learning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85136046614&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/feduc.2022.653738
DO - 10.3389/feduc.2022.653738
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85136046614
SN - 2504-284X
VL - 7
JO - Frontiers in Education
JF - Frontiers in Education
M1 - 653738
ER -