Interdisciplinary education in end-of-life care: creating new opportunities for social work, nursing, and clinical pastoral education students.
This article describes an interdisciplinary, interuniversity program that prepares social work, nursing, and chaplaincy students for competent practice when working with individuals and families facing end-of-life circumstances. Built upon a teaching format that provides knowledge-to-skill-building opportunities, the program immerses students in a range of related content. To maximize integration, the program relies on interdisciplinary team teaching (building knowledge) followed by practice sessions (building skill), in which volunteer actors play the roles of care recipients. With year 3 completed, program administrators have important indicators of the program's effectiveness in offering content specific to end-of-life care using a combination of discipline-specific and interdisciplinary learning strategies. This process has provided valuable lessons related to the nature of interdisciplinary education in end-of-life care.
Forrest
Cynthia
C
Department of Social Work, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina 29733, USA. forrestc@winthrop.edu
Derrick
Christina
C
D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing; D004517:Education, Professional / Q000458:organization & administration; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009657:North Carolina; D010327:Pastoral Care / Q000193:education*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012947:Social Work / Q000193:education*; D013022:South Carolina; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods