gms | German Medical Science

Background: With regard to the safeguarding and further development of health care, an high-quality, interprofessional cooperation between health care professions is indispensable [1], [2]. Midwives should also be qualified for interprofessional cooperation within the framework of higher education [3]. The curricularly anchored module “Interprofessional Case Conferences”, which takes place in the 6^th and 7^th semesters according to the the bachelor’s programme in midwifery at Bochum University of Applied Sciences, offers a structural framework for systematically designing interprofessional projects. Students of midwifery, nursing, ergotherapy, speech therapy, physiotherapy and medicine are involved.

Aim/Research Question: The aim of the interprofessional case conferences is the application of interprofessional competencies of the students in order to represent the subject-related role in an interprofessional working context and to act accordingly. The poster presentation focuses on the question: How are interprofessional case conferences implemented in midwifery education and what results does the evaluation reflect?

Methods: The module “Interprofessional Case Conferences” comprises a workload of 6 CP (60 hours attendance time, 120 hours self-learning time) and is taught over two semesters. The evaluation presented in the article took place at the end of an interprofessional block event of four days with 225 students in the summer semester 2019. The evaluation sheet comprised four areas with 23 questions on the general acceptance evaluation, the general conditions, the self-learning effort, the subjective learning success as well as on communication and cooperation.

Results: The focus of the work is on the construction of cases, which are analysed across occupational groups in regard to the aspects that are important for the respective profession and the objectives relevant to care. In addition, innovative learning methods such as a panel discussion, an open-space format and the World Café are used to promote interdisciplinary student exchange.

116 students from the fields of midwifery, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy and medicine took part in the evaluation. The majority of the students consider subject-specific knowledge to be relevant for problem solving in the context of the case conferences. The students had a particularly positive experience with communication on equal level and the joint negotiation of goals.

Relevance: Students are prepared for interprofessional cooperation in health care. They learn to negotiate health care goals cooperatively with other professions and reflect critically on their joint actions.

Conclusions: The integration of interprofessional case conferences in midwifery courses seems to be a promising approach to promote interprofessional learning. In order to gain specific insights into the viewpoints and competence acquisition of student midwives, qualitative interviews with student midwives are planned in the context of further case conferences.

Ethics and conflicts of interest: No vote on ethics was obtained. The research was financed by own resources. There are no conflicts of interest.