Interprofessional education and collaborative work in health: implementing is needed!

Abstract

Proactive actions to implement good collaborative practices that result in improved health care is critical since the health professionals’ training. This study aims to understand the process of education and interprofessional collaborative work in training courses in the health area of one Portuguese university. Professional trainers of Nursing, Psychology, Sociology and Medicine courses participated in Focus Groups. Content analysis of the transcripts was carried out with the use of the NVivo software version 12.0. From the data obtained five categories emerged: conceptual clarity; barriers/challenges; potentialities; strategies; and suggestions. Also, subcategories were defined, such as lack of communication, a students’ profile, and difficulty in operationalizing InterProfessional Education (IPE) and collaborative Work (CW). Weaknesses and threats surpassed strengths and potentialities. It is hoped that this study can contribute to a reflection that helps strengthens the curricular changes necessary to make work education viable.