Facilitating and evaluating a student-led seminar series on global health issues as an opportunity for interprofessional learning for health science students

Pre-licensure interprofessional education (IPE) is often cited as an important foundation in promoting collaboration between healthcare professionals. Due to administrative and attitudinal challenges that can arise in delivering IPE, pre-licensure healthcare students are rarely given the opportunity to learn together. As a result of the lack of opportunity in the formal curricula, an interprofessional student group developed and coordinated a 10-week, extracurricular seminar series on global health for medicine, nursing and occupational and physical therapy students at a Canadian university in 2006. This seminar series featured multi-disciplinary experts in global health and integrated interprofessional problem-based learning. Using qualitative methods, including focus groups, student reflections and pre- and post-course surveys, specific areas were evaluated as follows: participants’ attitudes towards IPE; the appropriateness of using global health as a vehicle for IPE; and the perceived obstacles and benefits of the IPE experience provided by this seminar series. The evaluation findings highlight the unique benefits and drawbacks of using global health as a vehicle for IPE, the value of sharing a common interest between professions in delivering IPE, perceived practice implications resulting from this seminar series and recommendations in delivering such an initiative. Also, while providing many of the same benefits in the promotion of collaboration between professions as recognized in formal IPE, this student-run, extracurricular model was shown to limit administrative obstacles, facilitate self-directed learning and integrate a diverse population of students. Overall, the model and content described was shown to serve as a beneficial and unique means of delivering IPE.