OBJECTIVES: Almost all healthcare today is team-based in collaboration over professional borders, and numerous students have work-based learning in such contexts. However, interprofessional learning (IPL) in clinical settings has mostly been systematically explored in specially designed contexts dedicated to interprofessional education (IPE). This study aimed to explore the possibilities for IPL activities, and if or how they occur, in an acute ward context not dedicated to IPE.

DESIGN AND SETTING: Between 2011 and 2013 ethnographic observations were performed of medical and nursing students' interactions and IPL during early clerkship at an acute internal medicine ward in Sweden. Field notes were taken and analysed based on the framework of IPE: learning with, from and about.

PARTICIPANTS: 21 medical, 4 nursing students and 30 supervisors participated.

RESULTS: Learning with-there were no organised IPE activities. Instead, medical and nursing students learnt in parallel. However, students interacted with staff members from other professions. Learning from-interprofessional supervision was frequent. Interprofessional supervision of nursing students by doctors focused on theoretical questions and answers, while interprofessional supervision of medical students by nurses focused on the performance of technical skills. Learning about-students were observed to actively observe interactions between staff and learnt how staff conducted different tasks.

CONCLUSION: This study shows that there were plenty of possibilities for IPL activities, but the potential was not fully utilised or facilitated. Serendipitous IPL activities differed between observed medical and nursing students. Although interprofessional supervision was fairly frequent, students were not learning with, from or about each other over professional borders.