Preparing the Emerging Workforce: Co-designing Pre-service Learning for Integrated Care

Background: Integrated care is widely recognised as the future of care. Realising this promise requires a workforce with the values and competencies to collaborate across organisational boundaries, include people with lived experience and citizen leaders, and work productively with complexity—i.e., inclusive, interprofessional and systems-oriented. While multiple frameworks now describe what integrated-care competence looks like, clear guidance on how to teach it to pre-entry learners remains limited.

A scoping review reported scarce evidence on programmes preparing learners for integrated care and pointed to the need to include meso- and macro-level learning and to stimulate adaptive expertise through engagement with real-world complexity. Building on this evidence, our design-based research shows how a longitudinal clerkship can be (re)designed to support learning integrated care within a fragmented system, using three design principles: longitudinal learning across contexts, guided reflection, and intentional attention to and appreciation of a transformative practice.

Target audience Educators, pre-service learners (students and trainees), educationalists, programme leaders, managers, policymakers, and community/patient partners (people with lived experience).

Approach: (Co-design Lab; 90 min; ≥80% active; 5 facilitators)

Co-facilitated by educators and people with lived experience, modelling co-production in learning design.

0–10 min – Welcome & framing: aims, facilitators, three design principles.

10–20 min – Evidence flash: why pre-service education matters; what effective integrated-care learning includes; examples of longitudinal and reflective approaches.

20–50 min – Small-group co-design: each table designs one cross-setting activity that embeds guided reflection and a real integration task involving chain partners (primary–secondary–community; family/carers; lived-experience partners). Educational models are offered to support participants in designing learning activities from a pedagogical perspective.

50–65 min – Outcomes & evaluation: groups select two measures (one learning, one care/patient-relevant) and draft a brief evaluation using a shared rubric or mini-audit.

65–90 min – Gallery walk & plenary: teams display canvases, exchange peer feedback, and identify transferable insights for their own contexts.

Learning outcomes; By the end, participants can:

1.Identify evidence-based components for pre-service integrated-care learning;

2.design one concrete cross-setting activity with guided reflection and an integration task;

3.select and justify two outcome measures with a brief evaluation plan.

References 1.Stein KV, Goodwin N, Aldasoro E, Miller R. The Integrated Care Workforce: What does it Need? Who does it Take? Int J Integr Care. 2023;23(3):1. doi:10.5334/ijic.7686. PMCID: PMC10327854.

2.Moran M, Martin P, O’Keefe M, Steketee C. Identifying Unique Integrated Care Competencies to Inform Health Profession Curriculum Development. Clin Teach. 2025;22(1):e70027. doi:10.1111/tct.70027. PMID: 39756825.

3.van Wijngaarden MTM, van Asselt D, Grol SMS, Scherpbier-de Haan NDN, Fluit C. Components and Outcomes in Under- and Postgraduate Medical Education to Prepare for the Delivery of Integrated Care for the Elderly: A Scoping Review. Int J Integr Care. 2023;23(2):7. doi:10.5334/ijic.6959. PMCID: PMC10120600.

4.IFIC. The State of Education and Training in Integrated Care Worldwide. 2025.