The Next Big Thing: Optimising the learning and contribution of interdisciplinary students in hospital outpatient clinics

Traditionally, students have taken an observational role with minimal active participation, experiential learning, and opportunity for interaction with students from other health professions, resulting in students feeling unequipped for effective interprofessional practice upon graduation. Conversely, in hospitals, medicine, nursing, and allied health clinicians are being encumbered by the pressure to be innovative in order to better patient care. In particular, there is an increasing demand for better digitalised documentation of clinical encounters with rapid dissemination to primary care practitioners.

Unfortunately, disjointed patient care, no matter how interdisciplinary, often lead to patients not fully understanding their management plans. There is a need to rethink and reimagine patient care and “The Next Big Thing” project, piloted at the Austin Hospital, is doing this through interdisciplinary student-led care. Note, due to COVID-19, this project was moved to run via telehealth for diabetes clinics at Austin Health.