Introduction
Complex treatment, care and rehabilitation require continuous professional development and maintenance of healthcare professionals’ competencies, both in their own professional fields and in collaboration with other professionals.1 Interprofessional education in childhood cancer is a multifaceted field involving multiple healthcare professionals with general and specific knowledge and skills who provide the best clinical management of children and adolescents with cancer.
The continuing professional development of medical doctors in childhood cancer is well documented, as demonstrated by well-structured fellowship and residency programmes that have been professionally evaluated.2–7 Continuing professional development of other groups, such as nurses and psychologists in childhood cancer, is less documented.8–10 Despite working alongside each other daily, healthcare professionals in childhood cancer are not formally trained in how to collaborate or possess knowledge about each other’s competencies.2 Consequently, well-structured, evaluated interprofessional education in childhood cancer is lacking.2 There is no agreement on the content or which learning objectives are relevant for an interprofessional education in childhood cancer.2
Interprofessional education can be defined as ‘Occasions when two or more professionals learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care’.11 12 This implies that an education intervention can improve how healthcare professionals work together, which in turn contributes to improved patient outcomes.12 13 However, interprofessional education outcomes are not easily monitored, and research addressing interprofessional education is inherently complex as definitions of what constitutes interprofessional education and evaluation methods vary.13 14 There is no gold standard.
No standards exist in terms of defining, designing or evaluating educational activities in interprofessional childhood cancer.2 It is unknown which educational activities and outcomes should be included in an interprofessional education in childhood cancer. This is important because specific and measurable learning objectives are essential to evaluating educational activities.15 Learning objectives are defined as ‘an end towards which an effort is directed’.15 In the development of a new education for interprofessional childhood cancer, defining learning objectives based on group consensus can increase content dependability and credibility.16 To reach transferability, this Delphi survey invited childhood cancer departments in three countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, to participate.
When there is no consensus in a specific area, such as defining, designing or evaluating interprofessional education in childhood cancer, the Delphi method is suitable to synthesising expert opinions and enhancing decision-making.16 17
The objective of this Delphi survey is to establish consensus on the content and interprofessional learning objectives of an interprofessional education in childhood cancer.