4 61 How does IPE influence students’ perceptions of collaboration? Figure 4.1: Three forms of social capital (adapted from Aldrich (2012)) Bonding (within networks) Bridging (between networks) Different power/social status In health care, one profession could represent the network circle in Figure 1 on the left and another profession the network circle on the right. Accordingly, with IPE, an increase of bridging social capital could occur. Van Oorschot et al. (2006) outline that more bridging social capital could narrow the gap between different communities, such as nurses and doctors, and that it can facilitate ‘getting ahead’. In medical practice ‘getting ahead’ can involve better medical professionals and better patient care, but also the access to and acquisition of knowledge that belongs to a different profession than your own. Evaluating IPE and its effectiveness through the lens of social capital can therefore provide valuable insights regarding how interprofessional relationships between students may affect perceptions of collaborative practice. METHODS To explore the influence of IPE on students’ perceptions and experiences in clinical practice, we conducted a qualitative interview study. Using a constructivist paradigm, the data were collected/produced and analyzed based on experiences of participants and through interaction between participants and researchers (Reeves et al., 2008). IPE-setting The Northwest Academy is the educational institute of the Northwest Clinics in Alkmaar, the Netherlands. Nursing students that followed their educational program
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