Utilising a post-placement critical assessment task to consolidate interprofessional learning

This chapter describes the development and implementation of an assessment task undertaken by health professional students during and after routine clinical placements, with the aim of consolidating a programme of interprofessional learning. It argues that the capabilities required by health graduates for effective collaborative practice between multiple health professions after graduation are complex and span the three domains of learning first postulated by Bloom and colleagues in 1956: cognitive, psychomotor and affective. It also posits that the acquisition of these capabilities during the preregistration training of health professionals requires a planned, coordinated and scaffolded programme of interprofessional learning activities. The evaluation of the activity demonstrates that the routine clinical placements undertaken by health professional students in interprofessional practice settings provide an opportunity to consolidate that learning, towards the end of each student’s programme, through utilisation of the assessment task. The task places the candidate into a critical posture in relation to the practice of an interprofessional team that they have had the opportunity to observe during routine clinical placements. Finally, the chapter considers this assessment activity as a particular type of post-practicum experience with the potential to augment specific kinds of learnings that may be acquired in the clinical environment.