Cooperation in Interprofessional Health Education

The Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences (KL Krems) and the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences have launched a cooperation for interprofessional collaboration in the health and social professions.

Students from several degree programmes at both institutions work together across disciplinary borders. Patients in particular will benefit from even better care thanks to this network in future.

Interprofessional Collaboration in the Health Professions

In many cases, illnesses, emergencies, and medical issues make it necessary for experts from several health professions to work together in order to find the best treatment and solutions for the patients.

To prepare students of different disciplines accordingly, the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Krems and the St. Pölten UAS start a joint course for their students from this winter semester. In this course, 250 students from both institutions work on case examples together and learn how to find the best solutions for their patients through interprofessional collaboration.

Social Aspects of Sickness and Health

The cases deal with, for example, various types of illnesses, rehabilitation, and birth as well as social aspects such as the loss of employment, worries in the family, and the circumstances of people with a migration background. In small groups, the students learn not only to deliver the best medical treatment but also how to communicate with patients and relatives.

On the part of the UAS, the study programmes Dietetics, Physiotherapy, Social Work, and Healthcare and Nursing are involved in the collaboration, while KL Krems has opened the course for its bachelor students of Medical Science. Teaching takes place at the St. Pölten UAS in 2023 but further courses are to be held in Krems in the next few years as well.

“The pressure on the healthcare system is ever increasing: The population is ageing and more and more people have chronic diseases that require rehabilitation and care. We need to improve interprofessional and person-centred collaboration between the health and social professions. Our students can now learn this very intensively thanks to the new cooperation”, says Christine Pomikal, Head of the Department of Health Sciences at the St. Pölten UAS.

“In a joint workshop covering several days, students of various programmes and disciplines in the health sector have the opportunity to work on patient cases interprofessionally and practically”, explains Simone Nemeth, project team member in the Education Unit at KL Krems and the main point of contact for the collaboration. “In a protected setting and with the support of mentors from the respective professions, the students can experience both the task areas and the limits of their own and other professions. The objective is to impart and train interprofessional exchange in a practice-oriented and holistic manner early on.”

“Social security is vital when it comes to recovering from illness, so it is important that affected persons and their relatives have the additional support of Social Work experts alongside medical personnel in the case of health problems and emergencies”, adds Christine Haselbacher, Head of the Department of Social Sciences at the St. Pölten UAS.

Groundbreaking Collaboration

“Collaborations like this one are an essential building block for further enhancing the high quality of health training in Lower Austria and for preparing the students for current and future challenges in practice in the best possible way”, says UAS CEO Johann Haag.

“In the health sector, the interprofessional collaboration of experts from various disciplines has long been considered a prerequisite for meeting the challenges of the healthcare system and especially for guaranteeing good care quality. At the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, we have therefore focused on teaching interdisciplinarity from the very beginning and have anchored the interconnectedness of the different health areas in our curricula. The collaboration with the St. Pölten UAS offers the opportunity to learn with, from, and about each other and to acquire interprofessional competencies”, summarises Manfred Wieser, Vice Rector for Education at KL Krems.