Development of an interprofessional task-based learning program in the field of occupational health: a content validity study

OBJECTIVE: One of the duties of the educational system is to provide situations in which students learn the tasks corresponding to their future careers in an interprofessional team. This study was designed to develop an interprofessional task-based training program. METHODS: This was a curriculum development study conducted by content validity methodology in two stages: 1) ‘framework development’ which resulted in the creation of the framework items; and 2) ‘evaluation of the framework’ (judgment and quantification). The first stage consisted of task identification, generation of sub-tasks, and assimilation of items into a usable format. The second stage consisted of the judgment –quantification of the content validity of items and the framework. After that, the framework of the tasks of the occupational health team was finalized in the expert panel. After explaining the tasks, a matrix for task-expected roles in the occupational health team and a matrix for task-required skills to perform each task were developed. The next step determined the appropriate teaching and assessment methods for each task. Finally, an expert panel reviewed and approved the components of the interprofessional task-based training program. RESULTS: Integrating the interprofessional education strategy with task-based learning was considered innovative in occupational health team training. In the development stage, 48 items were extracted, and then 35 tasks were generated in the step of identification of tasks. In the second step, 174 sub-tasks were developed. The tasks and sub-tasks were categorized into seven areas. After the stage of evaluation of the framework, 33 tasks were categorized into seven main areas, including "assessment and identification of workplace hazards" (n = 10), "control of occupational hazards" (n = 4), "determining the appropriate job position for each person" (n = 3), "occupational health examinations" (n = 6), "management of occupational/work-related diseases" (n = 5), "inter-organizational and inter-disciplinary relations, and legal judgment" (n = 3) and "education and scholarship in occupational health services" (n = 2). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study can be used in developing the use of the interprofessional strategy and task-based training as two appropriate strategies for the purposeful development of learners' abilities in the fields involved in providing occupational health services in their future careers.