The anniversary seminar took participants on a journey through the history of SamPraks, from the establishment of the network to its current role as a key actor in interprofessional collaborative learning. In her presentation, academic director Hilde Wøien highlighted how SamPraks, over the past decade, has helped bridge education, research, and practice. She emphasized the network’s role in creating arenas where professional communities can learn from one another and develop new forms of collaboration.
Several presentations throughout the day focused on the future. Anita Iversen from UiT The Arctic University of Norway raised the question of whether society can afford not to prioritize collaborative competence in the healthcare services of the future. Ane Johannessen shared experiences from TVEPS and discussed efforts to establish sustainable structures for interprofessional collaborative learning, while Lindsay Van Dam from Dalhousie University in Canada contributed international perspectives and research-based insights into how interprofessional education can strengthen future collaborative practice.
Towards the end of the programme, several greetings and reflections were offered by partners and long-standing friends of SamPraks. Representatives from municipalities, healthcare institutions, and hospitals shared their experiences of working with the network over the years, highlighting how SamPraks has helped strengthen the connections between education and practice. Their stories illustrated how knowledge is best developed when diverse perspectives come together, and when students, educators, and practitioners are given opportunities to learn alongside one another.
Throughout the day, one message resonated clearly: the need for collaboration across professional boundaries is just as relevant today, if not even more so, than it was ten years ago.