Lightning Talk

Collaboration During Crisis: New Graduates’ Experiences of Interprofessional Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thursday, September 25, 2025, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm CDT
interprofessional education for collaborative practiceinterprofessional identityCOVID-19

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic challenged healthcare practice worldwide. Ensuring effective collaboration between professionals is essential to meet population health needs during crisis. However knowledge on how to best prepare health professionals for interprofessional collaboration in crises is limited. Interprofessional education for collaborative practice (IPECP) during students’ pre-licensure education is an important primer for collaborative practice and supports interprofessional identity development. Few studies have followed health professions students longitudinally from pre-licensure into professional practice to understand how IPECP supports readiness for collaborative practice. This study explored how interprofessional socialization and identity development was experienced by new healthcare professionals upon entry to practice within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods:
An interpretive, narrative methodology was used to understand how interprofessional socialization was experienced and perceived by new healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the influence of pandemic contexts on interprofessional identity development. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 individuals from a longitudinal study of professional socialization across five health professions at a Canadian institution.

Findings:
The pandemic was identified as a key ‘critical incident’ that set a unique stage for collaboration and teamwork. The COVID crisis was a catalyst for team formation, and enhanced new professionals’ understanding and value of collaboration. Exposure to teams within the context of constrained resources/settings enabled meaningful socialization between professionals. Complex and urgent patient care scenarios were found to repress professional hierarches. Routinely working alongside others and experiencing collaborative behaviours during challenging events enhanced team commitment. Practicing professionals found solutions to overcome barriers to interprofessional collaboration and pandemic contexts facilitated the creation of innovative interprofessional practice spaces and teams.

Discussion:
This research makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the process of preparing students for interprofessional collaborative practice by identifying how interprofessional collaboration is facilitated within pandemic scenarios, contexts and practice settings. Our research informs key factors for collaboration that direct strategic and meaningful IPECP development. Our findings solidify that repeated exposure to interprofessional teamwork across diverse settings and scenarios is needed for practitioners to develop skills, attitudes and behaviours for collaboration and an interprofessional identity. Engaging healthcare students early in pre-licensure IPECP and ongoing within practice can support the development of resilient, collaborative healthcare teams and systems in future crises.

This lightning talk addresses conference priority criteria: measurable learning and health outcomes; inclusion of one or more students/learners on the author or presenter team.