Transprofessional Clinical Education
This group is led by;
Lawrence Dawson (he/him)
BA, DC, MSc (Oxon), MSt (Cantab), FRCC, FEAC.
Visiting Researcher at the Public Health Education Group and Transprofessional Clinical Education Lead for the Clinical Education Research Group.
ld635@cam.ac.uk
Working across professional boundaries to transform clinical education, practice and research.
The Transprofessional Clinical Education Group is a subgroup of the Clinical Education Researchers' Group (CERG).
We bring together clinical educators, researchers and practitioners from different health professions and disciplines who share an interest in improving how healthcare professionals learn, teach and work together. Our approach recognises that the challenges facing healthcare cannot be addressed effectively by individual professions working in isolation.
Our work is informed by the vision set out by Frenk and colleagues in Health Professionals for a New Century, which called for a transformation of health-professional education to better respond to complex, interdependent health systems. The report emphasised the importance of transformative learning and of harnessing interdependence in education, alongside developing competencies that are responsive to the needs of patients, populations and health systems.
Why transprofessional clinical education?
Healthcare is increasingly collaborative, complex and interconnected. Patients and communities encounter multiple professionals and services across the course of their care, yet education and professional development can remain organised around traditional professional and disciplinary boundaries.
We are interested in what happens when those boundaries become opportunities for collaboration rather than barriers to learning.
Transprofessional clinical education brings people together across professional, disciplinary and organisational boundaries to:
- explore different perspectives on clinical education and practice;
- develop shared approaches to teaching and learning;
- learn with, from and about colleagues from other professions;
- develop collaborative, evidence-based approaches to educational practice and research;
- build networks that support innovation and enquiry; and
- strengthen the relationship between education, clinical practice and health-system improvement.
This reflects the wider challenge identified by Frenk and colleagues: professional education must move beyond fragmented curricula and professional silos towards approaches that support collaboration, contextual understanding, teamwork and responsiveness to changing health needs.
Our approach
We see transprofessional education as more than simply bringing different professions together in the same room. It involves learning across boundaries, questioning established assumptions and creating new knowledge and approaches through collaboration.
Our work therefore spans both practice and research. We are interested in how clinical educators learn, how educational innovations are developed and evaluated, and how collaborative approaches can influence clinical practice and the wider health system.
We welcome colleagues from across the health professions and from related disciplines who are interested in clinical education, educational research and collaborative learning.
From shared learning to collaborative research
A key aim of the subgroup is to create opportunities for clinical educators to move from sharing experiences to developing collaborative projects.
We recognise that clinical educators often have extensive practical knowledge of teaching and learning, but limited opportunities to connect with colleagues from other professions, engage with educational theory or develop their practice into research. Transprofessional Clinical Education provides a space in which these different forms of expertise can meet.
Our activities therefore include:
- workshops and educational development activities;
- opportunities to share clinical education practice and experience;
- collaborative development of education and research projects;
- discussion of educational theory, methods and evidence;
- networking across health professions and disciplines; and
- opportunities to disseminate and strengthen emerging work.
Recent activity: Transdisciplinary Innovation in Clinical Education Practice and Research
A recent initiative has been the Transdisciplinary Innovation in Clinical Education Practice and Research: A Multidisciplinary Workshop Series for Clinical Educators, hosted by Charlotte Tuilinius and Lawrence Dawson.
The three-part series provides a practical space for clinical educators from different professional backgrounds to explore educational practice, develop collaborative projects and share outcomes.
Workshop One: Exploring Practice
Participants explore teaching and learning methods across professions, engage with educational theory and consider how educational approaches can be applied to their own practice.
Workshop Two: Collaborative Projects
Participants bring reflections and ideas from their practice and work collaboratively to develop education or research projects, with support from experienced educationalists.
Workshop Three: Sharing Outcomes
Participants present emerging projects and ideas, receive feedback and develop collaborations and professional networks to support their continuing journey as clinical educators.
The series reflects the subgroup's wider philosophy: bringing together different professional perspectives to create opportunities for learning, innovation and research that may not emerge within individual professional silos.
Looking ahead
Transprofessional Clinical Education aims to contribute to a culture in which clinical education is recognised as a collaborative endeavour. By connecting educators across professions and disciplines, we hope to support educational innovation, develop the evidence base for clinical education and strengthen the capacity of healthcare professionals to learn and work together.
Ultimately, our ambition is not simply to improve education between professions, but to explore what can be achieved through collaboration across professional and disciplinary boundaries.
As healthcare systems become increasingly interdependent, the education of the people who work within them must be equally connected.
Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta ZA, et al. Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world.The Lancet. 2010;376(9756):1923–1958. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61854-5.