Abstract:

Every health care profession has a different culture which includes values, beliefs, attitudes, customs and behaviours. Educational experiences and the socialization process that occur during the training of each health professional reinforce the common values, problems solving approaches and language/jargon of each profession. Interprofessional/intercultural collaboration is a key factor in initiatives designed to increase the effectiveness of health services currently offered to the public.

Monrouxe et. al. (2017) stated that medical graduates are unprepared in multidisciplinary team-working, interaction competence, personal preparedness, emergency management, understanding ethical/legal issues and ward environment familiarity.

Based on 2004-2017 the longitudinal research investigating educational possibilities for the development of the intercultural communication of health care team was performed at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences and Vytautas Magnus University (Eidukeviciute, Veckiene, Bruneviciute, 2013) results from 2017 – 2018 school year a new course "Interdisciplinary collaboration“ for students of medicine, nursing, occupational therapy and physical therapy was started.

It is important that the concept of collaboration in health care team should be well understood, because the increasingly complex health problems faced by health professionals are causing more interdependence.
The aim – to reveal the students’ attitude and understanding of educational and practical possibilities for the development of the intercultural communication of health care team members.
The objectives of the study were the following:
1. To analyze the theoretical possibilities to implement the aims of the course.
2. To investigate the practical possibilities for the development of interprofessional communication competences of multicultural health care team.
3. To compare the students attitudes about the subject content and educational environment.

Results:
The first part of the study presents the 2017/2018 subject analysis of the curriculum of the course „Interdisciplinary collaboration“. The qualitative study using the focus group method was performed in order to reveal the differences between initial understanding on intercultural communication and achieved knowledge and skills after the course. And it was showed, that students’ knowledge changed without the students’ full understanding of the fact – i.e. subconscious knowledge emerged.

The second part of the study revealed the comparison of the students’ attitude after 2018/2019 subject school year, because of renewed educational environment, teaching methods. The study also showed how students recognize the educational environment of the course, which peculiarities were highlighted when reflecting the learning process.

The data was collected through a semi-structured group interview. Participants of the qualitative study are the 1st – 3rd year students of medicine, nursing, occupational therapy and physical therapy study programmes of specialized university of health sciences (30 students).

References:
[1] Eidukeviciute, J., Veckiene, N. P., Bruneviciute R. (2013). Master Program Designing and Implementing: Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Inovative Social Work Practice. Istanbul, ECER – 2013.
[2] Monrouxe, L. V. et al. (2017). How prepared are UK medical graduates for practice? A rapid review of the literature 2009–2014. BMJ open, 7(1), e013656

Keywords:

Educational Environment, Intercultural Communication, Team.