The Master’s degree in health science (den sundhedsfaglige kandidatuddannelse) is an academic, interdisciplinary programme for healthcare professionals who hold a professional Bachelor's degree, such as nurses, physiotherapists, medical laboratory technicians, prosthetists and orthotists, occupational therapists, midwifery practitioners, dental hygienists, and professionals within nutrition and health.

The programme equips students with the skills to collect, analyse, and communicate health-related data and to work with complex issues within the healthcare sector.

Further education as a stepping stone to new career paths

Christina Hedegaard Hansen and Mathilde Manø Nørgaard are both in their final semester of the Master’s programme. During the programme, they have developed a deeper understanding of interdisciplinary collaboration and the importance of having a working knowledge of the perspectives of other health science disciplines.

Christina Hedegaard Hansen is originally trained as a social and healthcare assistant before qualifying as a medical laboratory technician. Alongside her studies, she works as a co-examiner at the medical laboratory technician programme. She is also the front-runner for Enhedslisten (The Red-Green Alliance) in the regional elections in Central Jutland. She hopes to use her education to teach future medical laboratory technicians, but she has also applied for positions as a quality control manager at hospitals.

Mathilde Manø Nørgaard is a trained physiotherapist. Before starting the programme, she spent a year working in a private clinic. She hopes to use her Master’s degree to pursue a career in research or quality development.

Both Christina Hedegaard Hansen and Mathilde Manø Nørgaard have found that the programme not only paves the way for new career opportunities but also offers insights into how healthcare professionals can strengthen one another through interdisciplinary collaboration.

Empowering one another through collaboration

Interdisciplinary collaboration is a central part of the programme. For Christina Hedegaard Hansen, it was an eye-opening experience to study alongside other healthcare professionals.

“I have worked with different professions throughout my career. As medical laboratory technicians – a very small field – we are used to working across professions. And I have always had a sense of what physiotherapists or occupational therapists do. But I had no idea how qualitatively they also work,” explains Christina Hedegaard Hansen.

She emphasises that, coming from a small field, she often must spend extra time explaining her skills and how she can contribute in collaborative settings.

“I always begin by explaining what a medical laboratory technician actually does – we are more than just the people who take blood samples – and what we bring to the table, like statistical analysis skills,” says Christina Hedegaard Hansen.

She also points out that understanding different areas of expertise is key to a broader perspective:

“For one assignment, we had to investigate whether faecal microbiota transplantation could be done at home rather than in the hospital. I had extensive knowledge of faecal microbiota transplantation and the bacteria involved in the process, while my fellow students contributed valuable insights into the patients' perspectives. In that way, we complemented one another really well and learned a lot through our teamwork as we worked on the assignment.”

For Christina Hedegaard Hansen, working with other professions has not only broadened her understanding of their methods but also provided her with new analytical tools. One of her most significant realisations has been the value of qualitative methods:

“I was introduced to qualitative research in the very first semester, and I was completely blown away. That way of thinking was not part of my previous education. I think in a much more qualitative way now than I ever did before.”

The difficult balance

While interdisciplinary collaboration is a strength of the programme, some students find that the most represented disciplines dominate the teaching. This challenges the less represented professions.

“In my class, there were three other medical laboratory technicians. But we also had optometrists and midwifery practitioners, and they were not represented much. So, some people perhaps feel a bit left out,” observes Christina Hedegaard Hansen.

Mathilde Manø Nørgaard has also noticed that the course material tends to favour certain professions:

“The content we work with is mainly geared towards nurses and physiotherapists. So, I imagine it can be a challenge for those from other professions,” she says.

“I was in a study group with a dental hygienist, and the material rarely reflected her area of expertise. We spent a lot of time on cardiac rehabilitation, and those kinds of cases are naturally much easier for physiotherapists, nurses, and people from health and nutrition backgrounds to engage with. So, it takes a bit of effort in the study group to make sure everyone actually understands what cardiac rehabilitation is, and to spend some time discussing it,” says Mathilde Manø Nørgaard. 

Different disciplines – one shared effort

Through the study projects, Mathilde Manø Nørgaard has experienced how different disciplines can complement one another and generate new insights:

“In one project, we investigated the effects of re-referring patients with back pain from the emergency department to a more specialised service. I did not know much about how things worked on a regional level, but I was in a group with people who had worked with that kind of patient group before. They knew all about the procedures and were able to explain them to the rest of us,” she explains.

Meanwhile, Mathilde Manø Nørgaard and another physiotherapist contributed with their experience from private and municipal practices.

Mathilde Manø Nørgaard emphasises that the project is a good example of how interdisciplinary and cross-sector learning provides students with a more nuanced view of patient care. Therefore, she sees great potential in improving courses of treatment and developing new interventions through interdisciplinary project work.

Strengthening core expertise through interdisciplinary collaboration

Healthcare professionals from different academic traditions often bring widely different approaches and methods. Thus, interdisciplinary learning requires openness, curiosity, and a strong sense of your professional identity.

“It is about being curious about one another and confident enough in your own profession to also be able to see things from a different perspective,” says Christina.

Mathilde Manø Nørgaard agrees and explains that the programme has also made her more aware of her own abilities when they are compared to what others do:

“It has made me more aware of how much physiotherapists are capable of that others are not – and vice versa. You would think that since we all work in healthcare, we automatically know the same things. But that is simply not the case. Actually, it has been really rewarding to discover how well we work together in interdisciplinary settings – and how we are able to recognise and give credit to our respective strengths,” she says.

This broadened perspective that interdisciplinary work offers has also reshaped Christina Hedegaard Hansen’s view of her own discipline. She finds that the programme not only has deepened her understanding of other healthcare professions but also has helped her see even more value in her own profession:

“I have gained a much better understanding of how we approach things, especially patients. I see things from multiple perspectives and have become far more aware of qualitative aspects than before. The programme has also made me reflect more on my own and the many ways in which medical laboratory technicians can contribute to interdisciplinary collaboration.”

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