Moniammatillisuus ja sen oppiminen. Tapaustutkimus ammattikorkeakoulun sosiaali- ja terveysalalta

Abstract

Tutkimuskohteena on moniammatillisuuden oppiminen ammattikorkeakoulun sosiaali- ja terveysalalla. Tavoitteena on lisätä ymmärrystä moniammatillisuudesta ja sen oppimisesta.

Aineiston perusteella moniammatillisuuden taustalla on monialaisuus, jolla ymmärretään hallinnointia, asiantuntijuuden perustana olevien tieteiden hyödyntämistä ja työskentelyä moniammatillisesti. Kumpaakin käsitettä tarkastellaan sekä yksilön että yhteisön näkökulmista, mikä tarkoittaa sitä, että yksilöt työskentelevät yhteisössä yhteisen tavoitteen saavuttamiseksi. Yhteisössä työskentely edellyttää sosiaali- ja terveysalan yleisten taitojen, kuten ongelmanratkaisu-, tiimityö-, johtamis-, kehittämis- ja ohjaustaitojen hallintaa.

Tulosten mukaan moniammatillisuuden oppiminen edellyttää toisen kunnioittamista, motivaatiota ja sopivaa oppimistilannetta ja -yhteisöä. Kannustavassa oppimisyhteisössä kukin opiskelija on voinut hyödyntää osaamistaan.

In this research the point of interest is multiprofessionality and how to learn it in the context of a multifield university of applied sciences in the field of social and health care. The purpose of this research is to conceptualize multidisciplinarity and multiprofessionality as expertise in social and health care and find ways of learning it. The objectives are to increase the understanding of these phenomena and to find out factors in how to enhance learning in a multiprofessional way. The research questions are: how do the students´ and teachers´ experi-ences indicate multidisciplinarity and multiprofessionality and how do the students´ and teachers´ experiences indicate the students´ learning of multiprofessionality. The theoretical background lies on the theories of multidisciplinarity and multiprofessionality and also on collaborative learning as professional growth.

The research approach is qualitative case study and the data has been analyzed using the content analysis method. The case studied is a learning project, which lasted one academic year. The main objective for the students was to learn multiprofessionality. The data consists of six students´ learning diaries, six teachers´ theme interviews, meeting materials and written project evaluations. Based on the analysis, there are 1,235 meaningful utterances from the total of 1,516 utterances. The results have been outlined as categories, which indicate the different dimensions of the phenomena in this research.

The findings show that multidisciplinarity is the basis for multiprofessionality. It takes the form of administration, utilizing the sciences needed on the ground of the competence and of concrete work as multiprofessionality. The nature of the main concepts is both personal and communal. According to the results of the study, the question in multiprofessionality is in different experts in different fields who work together towards a common goal, the wellbeing of human beings´. Another result is that multidisciplinarity as a personal feature denotes the competence that multiprofessionality assumes. This kind of competence is described as skills in problem solving, teamwork, leadership, developing, project working and counseling. These are so-called generic skills in the field of social and health care.

According to the results of this research, learning multiprofessionality is based on multival-uedness, respecting the differences of others, motivation, the possibilities in learning collabo-ratively, learning the competences that multiprofessionality assumes, multiform interaction, counseling and evaluation. Functioning in real life, the learning skills needed in future, shared responsibility, teachers? support and feeling successful keep up the motivation. The learning strategies are both personal and communal, because also the concept itself is both individual and communal. On the other hand, individual learning appears as metacognitive skills, project working skills, problem solving skills, counseling skills and one?s own substance. Students also have difficulties, because they do not have enough knowledge and experience at least in the beginning of the project. First, they solve problems very intuitively and, later on, as com-mon problem solving in the group. The teacher is a valuable resource for the students. How-ever, also teachers have challenges because they do not usually even know what is in question when counseling multiprofessionality. Their tradition is working alone. Collaborative learning in this group has meant collaboration and interaction where everyone learns.