Our mission and how you can participate

Health care work is characterized by interdisciplinary collaboration. To provide students with the skills they need, it is important that universities and colleges provide students with experience in interdisciplinary collaboration during their education. We regard this as a mutual responsibility for the municipalities, institutions, departments and educational programs.

TVEPS Centre for Interdisciplinary Work-Place Learning is a collaboration between the University of Bergen (UiB), Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) and the municipalities of Bergen and Øygarden.

The interdisciplinary collaborative learning takes mostly place in primary care; in health care institutions such as nursing homes, home care and general practitioners office. Students examine patients/users who can benefit from an interdisciplinary study and an indiviudual, interdisciplinary treatment plan.

What do we do?

We form groups of 4-6 students from various health professions. Students from medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, nursing, pharmacy, music therapy, nutrition, biomedical laboratory scientist, social educator, psychology, speach and language pathology and more are involved in the programme. 

During one day the students examine patients in workplaces in the municipality. The different group composition is adapted for placement location, patients/clients and the students available at that time.

The students' task is to assemble a interdisciplinary treatment plan for the selected patients. They must figure out how to work as a group, how to secure the patients care and safety, and how best to communicate their expertise to the other members of the group.

In retrospect, the students write a joint treatment plan which is then discussed in consultation with the patients primary contact and other health care staff at the workplace.

What do the students learn?

The placement takes place in a real work-situation with real patients. The feedback you give to the responsible health care staff at the workplace may provide valuable information for further treatment of the patient/client. You learn by working with the other students and through feedback from the responsible health staff after the placement. Through this two-way communication you attribute new knowledge into the primary health care, while providing insight into how patient care takes place in a real work situation. 

Learning objectives:

•    As the only student from your profession, you will learn to take independent responsibility for your own professional and academic qualifications.
•     You will learn how to communicate your skills to students from other health professions
•     You will receive training in interdisciplinary care of patients and team-work
•     You will learn about other health professions and the professional skills they possess

How does the training take place?

The training takes place in three parts:

1. A preparatory meeting before the placement day. You will receive information, meet your group and start planning the teamwork.
2. The placement day. During this day you examine the patients as a group and start working with a treatment plan
3. Report meeting. You present your treatment plan to the responsible health care staff, and discuss your findings. 

Before the placement you agree on how you will work together as a group. You will learn from each other, and it is important that you explain what you do, why you do it, and what you find. It is important that you support each other and provide specific, constructive and encouraging feedback.