Csikszentmihalyi defines “flow experience” as the state of mind students experience when the average skills and challenges while learning are above their own average.

Delle Fave, Massimi, & Bassi optimal experiences are used to assess students’ flow experience during interprofessional education (IPE).

To use the emotions comprising the Milan school eight-channel model [“afraid, concerned, bored, relaxed, in control, excited, happy (‘flow’), and glad”] to assess flow experiences of undergraduate health care students during interprofessional training.

Twenty-seven undergraduate health care students undergoing IPE training recoded their flow emotions during discussion of a clinical case in ward rounds, patient care in interprofessional teams, self-reflective practice at the end of each day of training and supervision of teachers. Statistical evaluation using meta-analysis with Tau squared (t2), Cochrane's Q and I2 provided the results (Table 1).

As reported in Table 1, interactions with teachers (I2 = 60.98%), patient care (I2 = 58.87%) and discussion of clinical cases (I2 = 63.31%) reported higher variability, significant at P < 0.05. The most frequent emotions were “relaxed” (> 66%) and “in control” (> 66%) but not “flow” (> 20%).

Results show that challenges were below the skills possessed, which can slow down the learning process.

Table 1

Results for flow experiences in interprofessional education.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.