The Partnered Learning Project

• Section 2 (page 5) of the manual shows a sample timeline for the introductory and weekly tutorials.
  
  
• Section 3 (page 9-11) provides an outline of introductory tutorials.
  
  

• Once the timeframe was identified the tutorials were scheduled according to student, preceptor, clinical and academic commitments.

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The introductory tutorial materials found in the manual were adapted to involve only one introductory tutorial instead of two. The following agenda is an example of a PLP introductory tutorial:

Time	Topic
5-10 minutes	Introductions to group members
15 minutes	Icebreakers (professional and personal)
15 minutes	Intro to the clinical team and the patient population, Hospital culture
30 minutes	IPE – Background, program goals, presentation, and role of the facilitators
45 minutes	Group norms, group processes, development of group learning objective’s
15 minutes	Planning for first patient themed tutorial and presentation

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• With a short series of tutorials (usually 4), it was determined that only one session would be dedicated to introducing IPE material and the balance would be spent using these concepts to examine practice. Opinions of the co-facilitators were mixed as to whether one session provided sufficient time, but both facilitators and students indicated the time to discuss shared practice was shorter (2 or 3 sessions) than the ideal. Therefore, within a 4-session series, a single introductory session seemed to be the best option.
  
  
• IPE facilitators should anticipate that students may have varying levels of experience in their practice setting, familiarity with the particular hospital setting, and confidence in dealing with other professionals, and be prepared to facilitate in a way that helps the group overcome these differences. It would be ideal if, at a minimum, students would be introduced to IPE placements, only after having participated in a hospital orientation and gaining some experience with their discipline specific placement expectations.
  
  
• Discussions concerning team roles were very important and needed to be explicit. Furthermore these subjects needed to be explored in multiple and varying contexts, such as points of patient transition, post-discharge, pre-admission, etc. The PLP experience suggests that the co-facilitators need to actively include the IPE components in the discussion as the students may not always see the importance or the benefits of collaboration.
  

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• Integrating IPE learning activities into traditional placements is a balancing act. Preceptors are concerned about the time spent on activities that are not discipline-specific, so scheduling students into IPE activities takes some sensitivity to the discipline learning priorities. Students and co-facilitators have expressed the desire to have more time on the material covered in the introductory tutorial (discussing IPE concepts, language, research and literature, and how these might apply to the current placement situation). This is a large subject in itself but it is also beneficial to have an extra 30 minutes to engage the students in developing group learning objectives.

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