Improving Interprofessional Collaboration in Norwegian Primary Schools

Comprehensive process-based intervention for improving interprofessional team collaboration in schools. A cluster-randomized study.

Start at 01.04.2017 Finnish at 30.06.2020. Funding: The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training Collaboration: All public schools at primary level in four Norwegian municipalities

Primary schools participating in the study:

From the municipality of Ålesund: Åse, Aspøy, Blindheim, Ellingsøy, Emblem, Flisnes, Hatlane, Hessa, Larsgården, Lerstad, Spjelkavik, Vik and Stokke, and Voldsdalen.

From the municipality of Harstad: Bergseng, Bjarkøy, Harstad, Kanebogen, Kila, Lundenes, Medkila skole, Seljestad and Sørvik From the municipality of Nedre Eiker: Mjøndalen, Krokstad, Solberg, Steinberg, Stenseth and Åsen.

From the municipality of Lillehammer: Vingar, Vingrom, Søre Ål, Røyslimoen, Kringsjå, Ekrom and Buvollen (will be merged), Hammartun and Jørstadmoen

Advisory Board for the project:

Senior researcher Mary Visher, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), USA Professor Nancy Cartwright, Durham University, UK, and University of California, San Diego, USA Analyst and content director Jarl Inge Wærnes, LearnLab, Oslo Norway

There are interprofessional resources in Norwegian schools and municipalities that are not fully utilized/exploited. Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences has been commissioned to design, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a process-based model for interprofessional team collaboration in Norwegian primary schools. In order for municipal school owners and leaders to better utilize the potential related to existing interprofessional resources in schools, municipalities will implement a process-based model with a focus on leadership and better coordination of existing interprofessional resources. While the work process will be the same for all schools enrolled to experimental group, the content of the intervention will vary based on local conditions, resources and needs. A manual describes how the work process should be carried out. The model is hereafter referred to as the LOG-model, a Norwegian acronym, referring to the terms leadership, organization and coordination

The evaluation will be conducted as a cluster-randomized trial, where 37 primary schools will be randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Schools randomized to experimental group will implement the LOG-model, while schools assign to the control group will work as previously with interprofessional collaboration. While schools in the experimental group will receive economic resources to compensate for implementing the model and participating in the research, schools randomized to control group will get, however, somewhat less financial compensation for taking part in the research. The implementation team offer supervision and support to schools randomized to the experimental group throughout the project period.

The main working method in the LOG-model is the interchange and feedback process between discursive practices, i.e. the discussion of interprofessional team collaborating measures and the execution/testing of these measures.

Staff from Oslo and Akershus College of Applied Sciences will have different roles in the project. Beside the implementation team with the role of facilitating implementation processes in schools randomized to experimental group, the process evaluation team will study implementation processes mainly based on qualitative data. The researchers in the effect-evaluation team will mainly work with quantitative data.

Prior to randomization a baseline questionnaire will be collected from the teachers and their interprofessional collaborators e.g. educational and psychological counseling services, public health nurses and child welfare social workers. Baseline information on pupils will be based on a survey data collected autumn 2017 and survey data and administrative data for follow-up + 12 and + 24 months. Long-term effects for pupils will be measured after the project has formally ended, up to 4 years after baseline, given that the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training authorize access and deliver administrative data for follow-up.

The project will assess whether schools randomized to experimental group that are implementing the LOG-model improve their interprofessional collaboration in a way that has positive effects on learning environment, learning outcomes and early intervention for pupils. At teacher level we expect the model to increase competence for interprofessional collaboration, teacher self-efficacy and more efficient use of teachers working time.

This knowledge will inform the debate on what the effects of interprofessional team collaboration can be in schools.

The project is funded by The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training and led by professor Ira Malmberg-Heimonen, Oslo and Akershus University College.

Participants in the project are Ira Malmberg-Heimonen (project leader), Knut Fossestøl, Øyvind Pålshagen, Elin Borg, Selma Therese Lyng, Anne Grete Tøge, Hanne Christensen, Thorbjørn Lund and Therese Saltkjel.