Evaluation of a Multidisciplinary Extracurricular Event Using Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory: A Qualitative Study [Letter]

Dear editor

We have read a paper by Almalag et al on Evaluation of a Multidisciplinary Extracurricular Event Using Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory: A Qualitative Study. We congratulate the authors for their invaluable findings in the world of health education.¹ Therefore we want to share our views on this study as well as provide input that can build and develop this research if we want to continue it in the future by other researchers who also want to test Kolb’s theory.

The study conducted by Almalag et al aims to review and assess the impact of public awareness on multi-disciplinary teams in carrying out their work especially in health services on interprofessional competence with the participation of health science students using Kolb’s learning theory as a framework. Almalag et al wanted to see how communication contributes in a multidisciplinary team, including interprofessional hierarchies, fast paced healthcare settings and interruptions in communication styles between different healthcare professions. But besides communication, there are also a number of things that we need to pay attention to in assessing this multi-disciplinary interprofessional, namely the work experience that each Health student has that is different which might have a big influence on the decisions they will take later and also their reactions to cases that they will get later when they are directly involved in patient care, therefore we suggest to Almalag et al to add this goal to their future research so that they can test Kolb’s theory more effectively and efficiently on the same sample, namely health students.²

This study uses a qualitative descriptive method using thematic analysis which is carried out through a series of focus group sessions, the method used by Almalag et al is appropriate but we would like to give a suggestion to be able to try using the cross-sectional online survey method so that you can see as a whole how responses and reactions from health students who come from various multi-disciplines can explore their experiences in working in teams and groups and compare them and decide on the right course of action in treating patients later when they work later. This has been done by Reinders et al in dealing with cases of malnutrition against the attitudes and actions of various multi-disciplinary health workers.³

In conclusion, we agree that Kolb’s theory can be used as a reference for reviewing and assessing the impact of public awareness on multi-disciplinary teams in health care where the results show as many as 21 students from five different health science colleges (Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Applied Medical Sciences) provides a fun, interesting, innovative, and educational response to the application of Kolb’s theory. As well as preparing them for the real world. However, it still takes a lot of experience from the students themselves to be able to really apply a cooperative attitude in interacting with other multi-disciplines in the health sciences so that they will not be awkward and stiff in handling patients with the application of many disciplines.⁴