Educating Professionals Practice Learning in Health and Social Care

Practice education is crucial to the current provision and future development of health and social care professional education programmes, although only in recent years has this been fully recognised. Practice learning is central to preparing competent and confident health and social care professionals, able to work collaboratively in providing complex care in a constantly changing context. This book is, therefore, timely and will be invaluable to teachers and practitioners from all health and social care professions who are involved in developing and delivering practice-based interprofessional education. This is essentially a practical book, designed to inform and assist the reader to gain a better understanding of different professional education programmes; it highlights key issues as seen from the perspectives of the different professions. It also offers opportunities for professionals to reflect on how they might learn with each other and to be more creative in facilitating student learning. The emphasis is on prequalifying undergraduate programmes and the focus is on practice learning in community settings. The book offers comparative information about the education of health and social care professionals, providing a comprehensive overview of the way in which nine professions educate and prepare undergraduates for professional practice. It highlights areas of similarity and difference which will be useful to those struggling to bring together in some way, different professional programmes. It will help a better understanding of the complex issues around the structure, organisation, culture and values underpinning the education of each of the nine professions represented and which challenge integration and collaboration in both education and practice. The way the book is organised, the thematic approach and guidance for the reader makes it very user friendly. The first two chapters set out the context and rationale for the approaches used and the authors have provided an excellent and comprehensive introduction to the book and the virtual community which is used throughout. The profession-specific chapters follow a set format making it easier to compare and contrast the professional programmes. ‘Derby Street’, a virtual community in which the professions work, is used in each chapter to illustrate student practice learning. Some authors have used it more effectively than others, providing excellent examples of student activity and highlighting more explicitly the process of learning. Others focus more on the structure and content of student learning, with less focus on practice learning. All identify issues that have challenged the professions and which are often context dependent, but may also be a significant factor across all professions. As an illustrative device, Derby Street is one of the book’s greatest strengths, enabling scenarios to be used which reflect real professional practice and demonstrating the potential for student learning in practice. The final chapter focuses on interprofessional learning and reflects the ongoing issues around interprofessional education which remain, despite the growing number of professions which require students to experience learning with other professions. Successful interprofessional learning models are identified, but the authors are cautious about the level of genuine integration into professional education in health and social care; nevertheless, the evidence base is growing as is the number of programmes where integration into mainstream professional education is well established.