Podiatry and Pharmacy: an equal partnership for shared clinical learning.

Shared learning between different groups of healthcare professionals promotes respect for and a deeper understanding, of the role of each healthcare professional within the multidisciplinary team.Shared teaching in a classroom does not necessarily facilitate shared learning and deep learning is more likely to occur, when students have the opportunity for problem based learning in a ‘real’ context. Shared learning works well when there is a common goal, mutual respect, mutual benefit and a balance of power between the different groups involved. Two such groups are undergraduate podiatry and pharmacy students.By year 4, the pharmacy students have acquired a broad knowledge base including pharmacology and medicine from which to further develop their skills required for medicines reviews. However, placement opportunities offer limited experience of assessing patients on an individual basis. In contrast, podiatry students take responsibility for individual patient care on a regular basis from the second semester in their 1st year. Podiatry students therefore become skilled early on in communication, patient assessment and management planning.During routine patient assessment, podiatry students obtain a drug history as a component of the medical history. The extended consultation time with students affords an excellent opportunity, for a more comprehensive medicines review by a supervised pharmacy student.By working together in the clinical setting, these two groups of students bring mutually beneficial experience and skill sets. The common goal for the students is the care and wellbeing of an individual patient.