Studying multi-professional work online

In the DVINE project, our underlying idea was to bring students together and thus, promote awareness of the interrelations that exist among nursing, social work and microbiology disciplines. Moreover, a multi-professional approach used was a means to enhance the learning outcomes and practices, instead of each discipline acting separately.

Why collaborative online learning activities?

In the field of social services and health care, a multi-professional approach is essential in order to meet the diverse needs of people. Therefore, our online course entitled ”Introduction to multi-professional work” aimed to improve students’ multi-professional perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours through collaborative online learning activities with students within and between disciplines.

In the field of social services and health care, a multi-professional approach is essential in order to meet the diverse needs of people.

In the Autumn of 2021, nursing, social work and microbiology students from three universities, three faculties and three countries participated in our online course.

The online course proved to be a good solution because of the Covid-19 pandemic which necessitated to change the education and shift from face-to-face teaching to online learning activities. Thus, Google Classroom digital platform offered possibilities whereby learning and teaching was undertaken remotely regardless, where students from Nepal and Vietnam could learn together despite their geographical location, educational settings and restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

How was online learning carried out?

This inter-institutional course was voluntary for the participating students (n=13). Students participated in the course by attending to time-bound teaching sessions. They also analysed videos and podcasts and conducted a self-introduction video and two essays independently.

The time-bound teaching sessions were conducted by Finnish teachers using Zoom video conferencing tool. Each session lasted two hours. The first session included an orientation in the course. The second and third sessions included simulation videos and follow-up small-group discussions about the responsibilities and roles that each member of the multi-professional team has.

What was learned?

Evaluation of the learning assignments and student feedback suggest that the ”Introduction to multi-professional work” course promoted students’ competence in basics multi-professional work, especially professional-client relationship, multi-professional teamwork and seamless communication. Networking and collaborating with others from different countries and educational institutions were regarded as an important learning experience which would not have been possible in traditional learning settings.

Networking and collaborating with others from different countries and educational institutions were regarded as an important learning experience.

Moreover, students made important observations of country-related similarities and differences in multi-professional teamwork and the roles of different professionals in that team. More importantly, they made suggestions for improving current practice in their own country, thus indicating commitment to develop multi-professional practice.

How did we succeed?

Student-centred online learning sessions offered students opportunity to practice their skills in English which were seen essential when studying and working in international networks. Moreover, peer learning was seen important in professional development in our course as well as in everyone’s future career.

In general, students were also satisfied with the content, teaching and learning activities, supportive learning materials, and assessment activities of the course. Regardless of the weaknesses of the course of which mostly were related to learning environment used, students’ perceived that they achieved the learning.

Permanent address: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022012510203