Interprofessional education

With over 50 years’ experience of healthcare education at the University of Leicester, we recognise the value of interprofessional learning and practice.

Our aim is that graduates from our Medical School and School of Healthcare provide high-quality care that is patient focussed, empathic and safe. Across all disciplines, we believe that this is achieved when students are able to become effective members of interprofessional health and social care teams.

At Leicester we are committed to maximising opportunities to bring our students together for interprofessional learning (IPL), embedding values of trust and respect in preparation for interprofessional collaborative practice. In this way we look to develop compassionate and inclusive future practitioners able to work together placing their patients at the centre of team-based care.

• From the beginning of their courses, our medical and healthcare students have opportunities to learn together. Members of our Patient and Carer Group work with our students to help them to appreciate the interconnections of a patient journey between the many different healthcare professions.
• During the first year our medical and healthcare students take part in workshops to identify the different roles within in the healthcare team and educate about the challenges of team working, as well as how to resolve them.
• All students take part in simulations about effective communication, using recognised approaches such as SBAR (situation background, assessment and recommendation with readback).
• In year two our students work together on clinical cases with a focus on people who are recovering from a stroke. Students spend two days sharing clinical and interprofessional insights with clinical leaders.
• The Leicester model of practice-based learning was designed to offer students short clinical placements to manage the care of patients alongside the clinical team. Students take part in practice-based IPL from mid-to-late training. For example, the medical and pharmacy students can visit patients in their own homes to complete a medication review shared with the practice team.

Clinical placements

• Students in our School of Healthcare begin clinical placements from their first year. Across the programmes, students experience diverse of healthcare environments, from major city hospitals to community-based placements, exposing to them to interprofessional practices and teamwork in a wide-variety of settings.
• Students on our Operating Department Practice degree are placed in a single partner hospital for the duration of their studies. This means they become fully embedded members of that hospital’s multidisciplinary team (MDT) as they complete their training.
• Our Pharmacy MPharm programme is one of the few courses of its type that offers significant clinical placement opportunities, a feature that can enhance students’ interprofessional competencies. Students take part in placements in a wide range of settings across the Midlands where they work with pharmacy teams in hospitals and General Practices, and locally or nationally in community pharmacy.
• Medical students are trained to be Health Care Assistants bridging the gap in their understandings and appreciation of the work of the nursing team (see below).
• When Leicester Medical School students begin the clinical phase of their course, placements provide further opportunities to learn together and with the support of a clinical team. Towards the end of the course, medical students become key members of the clinical team and are given their own clinical responsibilities with oversight from the actual clinical team.

Healthcare assistant training

Our first-year medical students have the chance to gain ward experience and achieve the Care Certificate, which ensures they have the essential skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide compassionate, safe and high-quality care and support. This also allows them to work as in hospitals as a Healthcare Assistant, building their knowledge and skills in the real-world interprofessional environment.