In this empirical study, the one-day project Robot Love Design-a-thon was designed for an interdisciplinary group of preservice teachers (in arts, sciences, and primary education), and evaluated through observations and learner reports. An analysis of the observations and the learner reports showed that having to go through a complete design process in a single day worked well: it facilitated the exchange of ideas and critical discussions between students concerning the project’s socially engaged theme ‘Tenderness and Technology’. In addition, interdisciplinary collaboration emerged as an important learning outcome. All students found working in mixed teams a relevant and educational experience as they could profit from each other’s expertise.
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In recent decades, a considerable amount of literature on interdisciplinary collaboration has been published. Interdisciplinary collaboration plays an important role in matching services to the individual needs of children and young people, but working interdisciplinary appears to be hard for youth social work professionals. The aim of this scoping review was to identify, analyse, and summarise literature on stimulating interdisciplinary collaboration among social work professionals working with youth. Seven databases were systematically searched (until March 2017), and grey literature was hand‐searched for relevant publications. Included in this review were empirical studies on at least one (future) social work professional working with youth that (a) focused on interventions for or important elements in interdisciplinary collaboration, team development, or teambuilding/work, (b) were conducted in a Western country; (c) met a clearly written method, and (d) were published in English or Dutch. Eighteen publications met the criteria, in which two categories of studies could be identified: focusing on important elements in interdisciplinary collaboration (ten studies) and focusing on interventions (eight studies). From the ten studies on elements, six overarching elements were distinguished that appear to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration. (a) Awareness and understanding of the other discipline; (b) communication and interaction: feedback, reflection, and evaluation; (c) team structure; (d) willingness to work together; (e) shared responsibility/norms, and (f) mutual trust. The interventions found in the eight other studies were divided into three forms: training, organisational interventions, and tools. More support for professionals in interventions is needed to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration. The six overarching elements found in this review can be used in developing these interventions. Further research is needed to develop, test, and systemically measure interventions in order to help youth social work professionals collaborate successfully in an interdisciplinary manner.
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Background: To facilitate adherence to adaptive pain management behaviors after interdisciplinary multimodal pain treatment, we developed a mobile health app (AGRIPPA app) that contains two behavior regulation strategies. Objective: The aims of this project are (1) to test the effectiveness of the AGRIPPA app on pain disability; (2) to determine the cost-effectiveness; and (3) to explore the levels of engagement and usability of app users. Methods: We will perform a multicenter randomized controlled trial with two parallel groups. Within the 12-month inclusion period, we plan to recruit 158 adult patients with chronic pain during the initial stage of their interdisciplinary treatment program in one of the 6 participating centers. Participants will be randomly assigned to the standard treatment condition or to the enhanced treatment condition in which they will receive the AGRIPPA app. Patients will be monitored from the start of the treatment program until 12 months posttreatment. In our primary analysis, we will evaluate the difference over time of pain-related disability between the two conditions. Other outcome measures will include health-related quality of life, illness perceptions, pain self-efficacy, app system usage data, productivity loss, and health care expenses. Results: The study was approved by the local Medical Research Ethics Committee in October 2019. As of March 20, 2020, we have recruited 88 patients. Conclusions: This study will be the first step in systematically evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the AGRIPPA app. After 3 years of development and feasibility testing, this formal evaluation will help determine to what extent the app will influence the maintenance of treatment gains over time. The outcomes of this trial will guide future decisions regarding uptake in clinical practice.
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