Student physiotherapist reflections on becoming collaborative practitioners

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a longitudinal curriculum on the learning and preparedness of future healthcare providers for collaborative team-based care. 

Informed by Charmaz’s grounded theory process (2021), four researchers identified emergent themes through constant comparison analysis based on the first and fourth written reflections. Themes were subsequently analyzed using directed content analysis, using Driscoll’s model of reflection (1994).

Three main themes were identified using Driscoll’s model: What? Realizing how to be a collaborator and team member; So What? Developing skills necessary for productive collaboration; and Now What?Feeling motivated by IPE to contribute to collaborative practice.  Early in the process, PT students were able to identify the importance of collaboration. “Being able to clearly communicate and express your thoughts and ideas is essential to functioning on a team and in most healthcare settings.” Over time, PT students acknowledged the value of their own contributions to collaborative approaches.  “Even before getting to know my team, the perceived professional hierarchy had already caused me to put myself towards the bottom of the barrel and determine that what I would have to say wouldn’t really be that important. However, I soon realized that by doing this, there were often aspects of a case that were not fully addressed because only a few individuals’ perspectives were used. As I got more comfortable sharing ideas, I soon understood how crucial it is for everyone within a team to be involved because there were often things that I, or others, would bring up that no one else had thought of.” 

This interprofessional team-based longitudinal curriculum allowed learners to learn with, from, and about each other concurrently while engaged in their uniprofessional curricula. Early exposure to collaborative practice contributed to students developing their own dual identity, transforming from uniprofessionality to interprofessionality (Khalili & Price, 2022).

IPE is an evidence-based approach that prepares physiotherapists for team-based care. Physiotherapists need to recognize that they are both members of a profession, as well as part of a team, for quality healthcare to take place.