Developing Virtual Communities of Practice to Promote Interprofessional Learning and Development

Developing Virtual Communities of Practice to Promote Interprofessional Learning and Development

This session explained the benefits, processes and key learnings from developing virtual communities of practice (COP).

A CoP is a group of people who:

• share a common interest
• have a common goal of improving
• want to share experiences
• share a passion for something
• interact regularly to learn how to do it better

They encourage collaborative working and promote dialogue and discussion.

They will turn experiential information into knowledge which is then shared with others. They're often created to fulfil a particular project - and it may come to an end in a natural way once it's fulfilled that purpose, or it may carry on. CoPs encourage information sharing across boundaries, both geographical and organisational.

A virtual CoP takes this group into an online collaborative space. New ways of working, connecting and developing the workforce with a shared purpose, with Microsoft Teams, presented an opportunity to build virtual multi-professional communities of practice.

Representatives from The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Practice-based learning virtual community and the AHP Children and Young People virtual community of practice described their experiences of running virtual CPs – and described how each offer a dedicated place for collaborative practice and knowledge sharing.

Both with representation across health, social care and higher education institutes. Their structure was designed to provide opportunities for peer support and problem solving, shared experience and promoting the best use of educational resources.

Katie Edwards from the Knowledge Services team in NES said, during her contribution:

“… Technology … provides important tools for supporting communities, but it cannot be relied upon to achieve the key aims of a community and that's sharing and building knowledge, developing expertise, solving problems. People are the community and that thinking together kind of process, that's what makes your community.

“But those digital tools and resources are often incredibly useful for helping us to do that. And as I say, times have changed. So we are very lucky to live in a world where we have access to these kind of tools where we can really bring people together in a way that we never could have before. So you're really widening your reach with your virtual communities these days.”

Find out more about virtual communicates of practice described and the NES approach by watching the whole presentation.

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