Interdisciplinary collaboration within healthcare occurs when two or more professions work together with shared objectives, decision-making, responsibility and power to achieve common goals; it is often used as a means for solving a variety of problems and complex issues (Green & Johnson, 2015; Petri, 2010).

Interdisciplinary collaboration is a vital phenomenon in health promotion, and the level of collaboration that takes place among providers can directly influence patient outcomes. Several studies show lack of collaboration and communication among healthcare workers (Donley et al., 2014; Fewster-Thuente & Velsor-Friedrich, 2008; Whitehead, 2004).

Improving cooperation among health professionals makes it more likely that patients will receive high-quality care (WHO, 2016). Therefore, future healthcare workers should be trained to work together as members of a collaborative that provides collaborative health care to the population. Even though interdisciplinary collaboration is an important learning outcome in most curriculums within health professions education in Norway, educators are struggling to teach students these skills. This case study describes experiences with one model for interdisciplinary practical education.

Two universities and a rehabilitation institution in Norway established a project called Clinical Education Department (CED). The aim of this project was to try a new model for interdisciplinary clinical education. Eight students from three professions led and ran one out of three units at the rehabilitation institution; they included two nursing students, two physiotherapy students, two occupational therapy students and two nursing assistants. The students worked independently without interference from other employees; a supervisor was, however, available in the department for questions. All the patients at the unit were asked and agreed to participate in this project. In this paper, we highlight the experiences with the project.

This study finds that Clinical Education Department, a model for interdisciplinary practical internship, (1) breaks down barriers between disciplines; (2) leads to a holistic approach to patient care; (3) is difficult to organize.

Students from three different professions were solely responsible for the patients for two weeks. They worked together as an interdisciplinary team with shared objectives, responsibility and power. When they assigned tasks, they had to reflect on which profession provided the best skills training for performing the particular task. This gave the students a role awareness of other disciplines, including awareness of the others’ knowledge, skills and perspectives. The role responsibilities of other disciplines were better recognized, understood and valued.

This study also finds that students become more aware of their own professional roles and expertise during the interdisciplinary practical internship. In a team with students in different professions, they had to reflect on their own particular expertise and capabilities. Being confident in articulating one’s own role and the roles of others facilitates the development of respect and trust and breaks down the barriers between disciplines.

The students worked together for the entire day, they had common meetings and discussions and they were responsible as a team for the treatment of the patients. The students expressed that patients received better treatment when students from different professions worked together as an interdisciplinary team. The student with the highest level of competence exercised rehabilitation in each individual situation, which gave the patients the best skills available at all times. For example, the nursing students gave medicine to the patients and the physiotherapy students organized the training program. At the same time, they were learning from each other: the nursing students were also doing the training, and the physiotherapy students knew what medicine the patients had received. Through sharing perspectives, team members learn from each other, they gain new knowledge and receive a more holistic insight and approach to the patient.

Even though students, teachers and rehabilitation institution in this project agreed about the positive impact of this internship model, it was discontinued after only a year, which included four internship periods. The reason it did not continue was that it was too difficult for the educational institutions to organize. Two universities and faculty from three different professions had to come to an agreement, and the students who participated needed individual education courses that deviated from the other students’ requirements. On this basis, the project required too many resources to make it practical on a long-term bases.

Many factors influence people’s health, and health promotion does not belong to one professional group or sector of health services. Intersectional collaboration across different health care professionals and public or private sectors is essential for effective health promotion (Bergquist, 2004; Tzenalis & Sotiriadou, 2010). Collaboration among professions has to start with interdisciplinary education; health professionals must begin working together before they actually start working (Bookey-Bassett, Markle-Reid, Mckey, & Akthar-Danesh, 2016; Petri, 2010).

Interdisciplinarity can exist within a single higher education institution or between two or more. There are many types of interdisciplinary activities in higher education. However, the traditional nature of the institutions means there are many barriers that in many ways discourage or prevent such activities from materializing. Higher education organizational cultures and structures often prevent such collaboration. The silo syndrome that permeates so many institutions of higher education discourages interdisciplinary practices and at the most entirely prevents them from happening (Jacob, 2015). The need for faculty to be highly productive in their teaching, service and research roles, combined with various internships and curricula among professions, hampers cooperation among education systems (Alberto & Herth, 2009).

A paradigm shift is needed. Universities and training programs must expand interdisciplinary educational opportunities and programs to help foster collaboration among students before they enter the health workforce.

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