Digital Health and Welfare Service Development in an International Multidisciplinary Student Team

Abstract

The rapid growth of digital health and welfare services demands new competences for health and social care, information technology, and business professionals. This study aims to describe the competences that students have before their studies and those they expect to gain from the study module “Developing Digital Health and Welfare Services” in multiprofessional groups during their bachelor studies. This study reports open-ended questions about students’ knowledge concerning digital health prior to the study units. The results, analyzed by QSR NVivo 10 for Windows, show that students are keen to learn about developing digital health and welfare services, and they see that multiprofessional work requires a communicative environment and respect for every profession. Students also believe that they have competences to bring to the multiprofessional group. A successful multidisciplinary development of digital health and welfare services requires changes and cooperation in education between various professions.