Educational approaches to support health professionals facilitating student interprofessional placements: A scoping review

In healthcare settings, interprofessional practice (IPP) has been demonstrated to improve health service delivery, coordination of care and to positively impact on patient outcomes when implemented effectively (McCutcheon et al., 2020). The benefits of IPP have driven the integration of interprofessional education (IPE) into student placements, where students from two or more disciplines learn together, moving away from the traditional uni-professional approach (Rogers et al., 2017; Walsh et al., 2023). IPE seeks to prepare students for the increasing complexity of healthcare service provision they will encounter as graduates, making it essential for their career readiness (Rossiter et al., 2023). Health professional clinical educators (CE’s) are tasked to facilitate these models, and the effective delivery of IPE in clinical workplace settings requires competent CE’s. Only well-equipped educators can facilitate successful student interprofessional placements and patient outcomes (Reeves et al., 2017). However, IPP is complex and requires strong skillsets for successful delivery. Clinicians often feel ill-prepared for IPE roles (Silva et al., 2022). Currently, there little is known about the educational models and approaches available to facilitate CE’s confidence and competency in providing IPE to students, including their preparation for and conduction of these supervisory roles. This review aims to identify the educational models or approaches used to equip CE’s to provide IPE for student interprofessional placements. In addition, it seeks to scope the perceptions of health professionals and organisational leaders (manager/supervisor) regarding education models or approaches that support CE’s in supervising student interprofessional placements.