Expanding the Base: A Case for Increased Interprofessional Collaboration in Public Health Law and Policy

Despite the need for effective collaboration between competent practitioners to create comprehensive policy that is informed by multiple professions, minimal literature exists on interprofessional education focused on the macro arena. In response to the identified need, an interprofessional course was developed to provide social work, law, and public health graduate students knowledge of social determinants of health and policy in order to function in the macro arena. The course was piloted in 2015 with 10 students from social work, law, and public health. Components of the interprofessional course are described. An interprofessional team of researchers from social work, law, and the center for teaching and learning evaluated the interprofessional course to answer the following questions: 1) "How do students understand their role as future professionals?" and 2) "How do student navigate the collaborative process within IPE?" Evaluation of the course was guided primarily by a critical discourse analysis ("CDA") of individual group evaluations. Data analysis also included Interprofessional Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey ("ICCAS") preand post-tests. A paired sampled t-test was conducted for the ICCAS summary scores as well a comparison of mean and standard deviation for summary scores of the six subscales. The results indicated that students increase their collaborative competency during the course; however, greater emphasis is needed in specific collaborative skills. The CDA produced three primary themes: 1) Professional Hegemonx Exists Between the Professional Students, 2) Students Perceive Professional Content Expertise as the Most Important Knowledge, and 3) Learning Collaborative Skills Needs to be Intentional and Does not Occur Effectively Simply by Working Together. The themes as well as strengths and challenges to collaboration from a student perspective are discussed.