Interprofessional Training in a Psychiatric Study Unit

Research question and basic idea: Interprofessional collaboration is a skill that many health professionals need to develop. Interprofessional training offers a way to improve collaboration and patient care. The increasing number of psychiatric patients with complex needs, requires mental healthcare providers to enhance their skills. It necessitates that healthcare professionals collaborate effectively; nevertheless, many have not been trained in an interprofessional environment. Health professionals lack sufficient knowledge of other professional roles and competences to engage in teamwork. Interprofessional training units have been designed to create an optimal learning environment for healthcare students. These training units provide a new environment for learning, where students can learn from each other and develop competence in interprofessional collaboration. This collaboration gives students from several health professions an opportunity to achieve a greater understanding of the overall picture of the patient´s life. The limited data available suggest interprofessional collaboration interventions can improve health-care processes and outcomes; however, better designed studies are needed. Objective: Therefore, we will investigate whether placement at a psychiatric training unit compared with placement at a standard psychiatric ward improves students' interprofessional skills and patients' health status and satisfaction.