Making collaboration explicit through collaborative, diagnostic, and intervention activities: foundations for interprofessional education

Abstract

Interprofessional collaborative practice (ICP) is essential for high-quality healthcare, especially in complex care situations. To support learners in responding to the demands of ICP, interprofessional education (IPE) must help them recognize critical points for collaboration and engage in diagnostic and intervention reasoning across professional boundaries. This study uses the context of wound care to illustrate where and how collaboration becomes critical, and to examine how related reasoning activities unfold. A qualitative expert elicitation with supplementary audio-recorded reflections was conducted. Six experts provided 18 case-based written and verbal reflections on three simulated patient scenarios. The material was analyzed using content-structuring qualitative content analysis. Eight critical collaboration points were identified, including pre-briefing, wound assessment, and follow-up care. Across all points, professionals described distinct diagnostic activities (DAs), such as gathering and evaluating evidence; intervention activities (IAs), such as planning and adjusting treatment; and collaborative activities (CAs), such as information sharing, negotiation, and coordination. These activity types occurred in dynamic, iterative patterns and were often situated at moments that experts conceptually described as requiring interprofessional coordination—a perspective aligned with the notion of “noticing.” Structuring these collaboration points into CAs, DAs, and IAs provides a functional lens to describe and support collaborative reasoning in practice. The findings offer a foundation for designing simulation-based IPE, structuring feedback, and specifying interprofessional contributions in assessment frameworks such as Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs). Further research can explore the transferability of this approach to other clinical contexts and examine its integration into teaching, supervision, and assessment.