Using the ‘huddle’ to enhance interprofessional teamwork among nursing students through a podcast: a qualitative and exploratory pilot study

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional teamwork is crucial for fostering healthcare performance and for minimizing adverse events. The daily huddle is an important arena for interprofessional interaction and communication between nurses and physicians in hospitals. Although prevalence strongly rooted in clinical practice, the huddle does not seem to be a prioritized area in nursing education programs. Taking part in a huddle is traditionally something nursing students learn in their clinical studies. Therefore, there is need for learning tools that can provide nursing students with quality assured training that can improve their preparation for interprofessional teamwork and strengthen the link between the educational institution and the field of practice. In this study, we have developed and tested a podcast to increase nursing students’ competence in interprofessional teamwork when participating in huddles. The aim of the pilot study was to explore nursing students’ experiences with utilizing a huddle-focused podcast as a learning tool during their clinical practice studies in the hospital. METHOD: This qualitative and exploratory pilot study used focus group interviews. Eleven third-year nursing students who had listened to the podcast during their practical studies at a medical hospital ward were included. The interviews were subjected to content analysis. RESULT: The analysis identified four categories that resonated across all participants in the focus group interviews: 1. understanding one’s own role in the huddle; 2. being encouraged to speak up; 3. using the huddle as a flexible learning tool; and 4. being authentic but not always realistic. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that the huddle-focused podcast seems to be valuable for nursing students learning about interprofessional teamwork. The podcast seemed especially useful in helping the students to understand their own role and to speak up in the huddle meetings. The positive experiences with the flexibility of the podcast learning tool are promising for use in other educational settings.