Abstract
Although clinical placements are an integral part of health-profession education, in contrast to university settings where education is a primary focus of activity, the health services that host these placements are primarily configured for clinical services. As a result, health-service staff supervise students in an environment where work priorities are centred on patient care rather than on student learning. Moreover, health services are complex and dynamic environments where student-learning opportunities vary greatly. As part of a project to identify and build leadership capacity for quality student learning within clinical teams, a model for team development was tested in three different health-service teams. The process of identifying and enrolling the selected teams permitted some observations to be made by the project team regarding the ways in which the organisation of health services shaped student-learning opportunities. The more complex the health service in terms of size, clinical team composition and patient or client care responsibilities, the fewer opportunities staff had to come together as a team to discuss and plan student learning. In addition, the more complex the health service, the greater the number of universities placing students and the greater the number of different programmes and levels of study represented, rendering the task of planning more difficult. It is proposed that what is required are negotiations across institutions that are sensitive to the complexities of clinical practice and also mindful of the need for students to be supported and engaged in ways that allow them to contribute and learn effectively in doing so.
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Notes
- 1.
These three clinical teams participated in the Leadership for Excellence Project ‘Using TMS to identify and build leadership for quality learning in clinical healthcare teams.’ Support for the project was provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council or of the Australian Government.
- 2.
Despite having less autonomy to reorganise their day-to-day activities to improve student learning opportunities, as a result of participation in the project, both the aged-care and country hospital teams identified and created changes within their organisations to enhance student learning.
- 3.
The country hospital team was the only one of the three teams in which students from more than one discipline were observed in the same workplace.
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Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the contribution of the clinical teams and health services who participated in this project together with the Building Leadership for Quality Learning project team. We also acknowledge the support provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
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O’Keefe, M., McAllister, S., Stupans, I. (2011). Health-Service Organisation, Clinical Team Composition and Student Learning. In: Billett, S., Henderson, A. (eds) Developing Learning Professionals. Professional and Practice-based Learning, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3937-8_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3937-8_11
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