INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION (IPE): OPPORTUNITY OR DETOUR FOR A YOUNG PROFESSION? BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE GERMAN DISCOURSE ON IPE

Background: Interprofessional education (IPE) has grown in importance for higher education in the german physiotherapy profession. It is strongly demanded and promoted by politics. According to CAIPE (2002), IPE has two main goals: improve collaboration amongst professions as well as quality of care for patients. Existing evidence suggests the effects of IPE are very heterogeneous and have not yet yielded satisfactory results. Despite this lack of evidence, many disciplinary resources in the young scientific field of german physiotherapy are tied up with tasks and employments focusing on IPE. While this distribution of resources may be questioned, there is an urgent need to establish and refine discipline-specific topics and knowledge.

Purpose: To nurture the development of a small academic group, it seems elementary for the profession to take care of their disciplinary scientific resources and to sensitize young professionals for developmental requirements. Above all, these requirements should be formulated from within and not drawn from outside. For IPE, it appears that the external pressure for development is high and that within its public discourse, other topics are brought into the mix. Therefore this project takes a look behind the scenes and intends to investigate the discourse on IPE by uncovering how and by whom topics are set, supported, or even slowed down. Furthermore, its aim is to comprehend and predict how this discourse may affect the further development and professionalization.

Methods: The discourse on IPE is analysed with the sociology of knowledge discourse analysis combined with aspects of Foucualt's power analysis. Important objectives are to develop a subject /power cartography of the field, to work out the subject positions, as well as to work out the disciplinary topics and issues that are debated in this discourse. Initial data is sourced by participation in a congress focusing on IPE. Based on these observations, the field is processed in a reconstructive manner to include further data and materials in circulary processing loops via referencing and cues.

Results: This research project is at an early stage. The participatory field observation has taken place. Data collected from the IPE congress is currently being analysed and will serve as a starting point to identify the need for further data sourcing and analysis. Consequently, data collection, analysis, and interpretation are in progress but require further time before finalization.

Conclusion(s): Professionalization of physiotherapy in Germany is still in its infancy and there are many needs for development. Hence, it seems important to distribute resources consciously and intrinsically to strengthen the professional group. To do so, it is arguably invaluable to understand the driving forces in the game of powers and to critically question developments in the healthcare system as well as in the profession itself.

Implications: What do students and graduates need in order to be able to navigate within their profession and within the health care system? What do they need to understand and position themselves within the invested game of powers? It seems helpful to qualify and sensitize students for power structures and discourses within their field.

Funding, acknowledgements: the work is unfunded

Keywords: interprofessional education, discourse analysis, professionalization

Topic: Professional issues

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Institution: N/A

Committee: N/A

Reason: The work includes primarily political, institutional and public publication mediums like recommendations, reports, statements. It can be classified as theoretical research.