Table 4.

Most positive and difficult aspects of working with other health professional students

Positive		Negative
Theme: Gaining an understanding of the roles of multi-disciplinary team work and holistic patient No. of similar comments 24/80 (30%)		Theme: No Negative aspects to working with other health professional students No. of similar comments 45/80 (56%)
The inter-professional nature of the program helped students to gain an understanding of how health care professions will work together in multi-disciplinary teams within health systems in the future This also helped students to gain a holistic view of patient care Understanding the roles of other health professionals, and how to develop teamwork skills	Understand how other disciplines work together to achieve the same goals. Learning about other health topics not related to your discipline. I learnt the different roles of other professionals and it allows me to better understand working in a multi-disciplinary team and what it encompasses Working with other health professional students replicates real life hospital settings where multidisciplinary teamwork is used. It’s common to learn on paper but never really practiced in real life. I get to know their perspectives toward health care. Helps us work together to improve multiple aspects of a patient’s care- holistic care. Learning other professions perspectives on patients’ needs and how to fulfil them. I was able to appreciate what my discipline of speech pathology has to offer to other health disciplines (pharmacy and medicine) and how it fits in to the overall spectrum of healthcare. Interacting with other sets of people rather than from our own discipline seeing how our role fits in with theirs, and how we aid in their clinical decisions.	Most students commented that there were no negative aspects to working with health professional students from different disciplines, and identified positive aspects	Nope. I thought it was on important aspects of this workshop… it was a great experience. Loved listening to the stories from the other HCP students even the lectures. No, working with other HCP students helps build good rapport and develops a positive attitude to bring across when practicing in the real healthcare industry. Can’t think of any! I think it is absolutely important for students from different health schools to interact (Just like how multi-disciplinary teams work together in hospital). Thank you for the course.
Theme: Develop inter-professional appropriate communication skills No. of similar comments: 18/80 (23%)		Theme: Differing levels of knowledge and experience No. of similar comments: 13/80 (16%)
Developing a knowledge of the roles of other health professions; Comparing and developing knowledge and appropriate communication skills when dealing with other health professions Highlighted the importance of communication skills, for example, in handover, and the importance of avoiding jargon	I like talking to other people and hearing their experience and being able to compare my knowledge/communication skills- very important given we all work together. I was able to improve my own communication skills, learn about their courses and how professionals can work together to deliver the best healthcare to the patient. Being mindful about our terminology when teaching during teaching a health topic exercise. Sharing our experiences and knowledge. Being exposed to other professions equals increased understanding of what they know and the level of communication you should use. Working with other professional students made me understand the importance of avoiding professional jargon and to use more general terms in addressing topics so that not only pharmacists, but also other non-pharmacy students could comprehend.	Different levels of knowledge and experience, making it difficult to ‘pitch’ a teaching session at the right level Some students suggested more time could be given to explaining the roles of other health professions.	Since this was one of the fist times I had more exposure with other professions, I didn’t know how much they knew. Everyone has different backgrounds so some students knew more than others in particular topics. Not necessarily negative, however, presenting a medical-related case to non-medico’s as well as medical students, makes pitching the appropriate level difficult. Maybe more time could be allocated to understanding more about the professions and their role in healthcare.
Theme: Develop an understanding and appreciation of the curricula, knowledge and skills of other disciplines No. of similar comments: 40/80 (50%)
Learning about the coursework and curriculum other disciplines Gain an understanding of the differences and similarities in clinical knowledge and experience Developing an understanding of how the roles of individual disciplines contribute to holistic patient care Realising that others appreciate each others roles	Finding out what they learn in their curriculum so that in the future we can communicate to them effectively e.g. by not using jargon they don’t understand. Sharing different stories and reflections of their respective degrees. Discovering the differing scopes of each discipline. Understanding the teaching provided to other health professional students and their knowledge base and strengths will greatly improve my interactions with them in the future. Learning from others has given me a better understanding of health topics outside the scope of medications (e.g. speech pathology for stroke recovery, etc.). It added to our understanding about other professions. I got to understand through their goal when it came to a scenario e.g. patient falls and breaks wrist- pharmacy = what medications were they on, was it affecting their brain/consciousness. Physiotherapy = which angle was the fall, which bone was involved. Learning about their line of work and an aspect of their course. Being mindful about our terminology when teaching during teaching a health topic exercise. Sharing our experiences and knowledge. You have a better insight to how they are trained and the difficulty they may experience when dealing with a particular situation. Also have a good cross-junction dialogue and patient safety. Their different approaches to small group teaching. The type of clinical expereince and clinical skills they learn. How our professions overlap- more so than I was first aware!