How Choir Singing Can Inspire Interprofessional Learning

Collaboration between healthcare professionals from different backgrounds is a true art to be mastered. During interprofessional education, learners from different professions (i.e. nursing, medicine, social work, occupational therapy) learn with, from and about each other. Choir singing offers a helpful metaphor to understand different aspects of interprofessional learning and collaboration. Here, choir singers with different voices make a different yet equally important contribution to the songs we sing together. As you will notice in recordings of choirs, singers are in constant connection. Singers do not act as individuals. They listen and react to each other. Check out the choir performance of ‘Il est bel et bon’ by ‘Jugendchor Zürich’ as an example:

But how do choirs actually learn to collaborate in a way that seems so effortless during a choir performance? Based on the similarities between choir singing and interprofessional learning, we identified four lessons for interprofessional endeavors in health professions education.

1) The teacher sets the tone. In choir singing, the conductor takes leadership as the singers practice songs. The conductor knows how the different parts should be sung, how they relate to each other and sound together, and conveys this knowledge by practicing parts separately and together. Yet, the conductor can only share this knowledge if their role as conductor, and their knowledge of all parts, is seen and accepted by all choir singers. Likewise, in interprofessional learning, teachers need to be recognized as teachers by all students and should be supported to build competence and trust in their role as interprofessional teachers.

2) You can only learn so much alone. In choir singing, solo practice cannot replace choir practice. While it is important that everyone knows their part, real learning takes place when singers know how the different parts come together. Also, in interprofessional education, learning takes place when different professions meet regularly and early on, even when learners are still forming their own identity. And like practicing for a concert, this takes time.

3) Listening is not as easy as it sounds. In choir singing, listening to other voices while singing your own part is challenging, yet crucial for hearing and appreciating the harmonies and dissonances, and performing effective dynamics. It is necessary to know how your own part fits within the whole piece to make music. Similarly, in interprofessional education, learners need to have the opportunity to see and experience other professions in authentic contexts and are guided in their reflection on their roles and relations to each other.

4) A song is more than the sum of its parts. Beautiful choir music only develops if you do not hear the individual voices but if they come together as one. This requires that different voice groups support each other and align their singing. Only then does a group of singers become a choir. Interprofessional education should stimulate learners to build connections outside of their profession, form a team that tackles challenges together, and ultimately work as one.

This article is based on open access published work. 

Beuken, J. A.,& Biwer, F. (2024). Preaching Through the Choir. What Interprofessional Education Can Learn From Choir Singing. Perspectives on Medical Education, 13(1),274. https://pmejournal.org/articles/10.5334/pme.1182  

_{Cover photo by David Beale on Unsplash}