Learning about each other: Students' conceptions before and after interprofessional education on a training ward

In interprofessional work the striving of the members of each profession to establish their own positive in-group identity can be a source of conflict and have a negative effect on care. To counteract this, interprofessional training wards (IPTWs) have been developed in Sweden. The aim of the present study was to investigate similarities and differences in how student nurses, student occupational therapists and student social workers perceived their own and the other two professions before and after clinical education on an IPTW. Sixteen students were interviewed before and after the training on an IPTW in municipal care for older people in Sweden. A coding scheme developed in an earlier study was used in the analysis of the interviews. The findings indicate that there are changes in the students' stereotyped views, enhancing understanding of each other's professions after three weeks' clinical education on the IPTW. In some areas, however, there are still discrepancies between the description of own profession and the others' understanding of this profession that need to be confronted. In interprofessional training during education in social and health care there needs to be a balance between on the one hand the particular professional identity, on the other the shared identity implied by membership of the health-care team focusing on a common goal.