Box 3.

Lessons Learned About Developing and Implementing Student-Led Clinics

Lessons about teaching and learning

Planning is required to provide consistent education and supply of expert supervision. Student experiences were positive, practice was transformative. Aligning participation with course requirements impacts attendance and commitment. Interprofessional components can be successfully introduced across existing pre-registration health professional degree courses in an Aotearoa New Zealand context. Clinics can provide an authentic interprofessional environment. A sharing of the vocabularies, cultures and worldviews of each disciplines requires making knowledge explicit to enable situated learning to occur. Aligning of curriculum is needed to facilitate consistent and sustainable interprofessional learning opportunities within a student-led clinic. Creation of practice stories and heuristics may be important in the NZ context. Educators gained valuable insight into their own collaborative processes and learning, and into difficult aspects of interprofessional teamwork for students.

Lessons learned about operational factors

Start small and build up: do not over-reach or over-commit. Multi-perspective planning and staff facilitation is required for success. A clear vision and clinic objectives are essential. Policies and procedures need to support and reflect interprofessional practice and prevent siloed practices and communication. A focus on interprofessional practice should come from the leadership team. Plan to ensure ongoing supply and diversity of patients: locating in an area of high need is insufficient evidence this will occur. Successful examples were outreach clinics and partnerships with established healthcare providers. The physical environment can facilitate or inhibit effective interprofessional practice. Educational institutions operate within different financial arrangements than healthcare providers. Recommendation to operate as a quality healthcare provider and have strong processes in place for managing equipment and materials etc. Having a single point of entry for referrals is useful for external providers. Having a front-facing administrator can support health students to stay focused on clinical learning experiences with clients.