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The Health-e-Learning project investigated the use of videoconferencing to deliver interprofessional clinical education to allied health students. Via a broadband link, students observed DVD footage of a clinical session then participated in discussion with the clinicians at the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH), Melbourne. The videoconference sessions were evaluated with respect to session content, the effectiveness of videoconferencing in providing interprofessional education (IPE) and the satisfaction with this as a supplement to facility-based placements.

Interprofessional education (IPE) for teams of undergraduate students has since 1999 been carried out at the orthopedic emergency department at the Karolinska University Hospital. During a 2-week period, teams of medical, nursing and physiotherapy students practice together. With the aim of training professional and collaboration skills, the teams take care of patients with varying acute complaints, under the guidance of supervisors from each profession.

This paper reports work from a Centre for Interprofessional Practice in a higher education institution in the UK that offers four levels of interprofessional learning (IPL) to all healthcare students. The second level (IPL2) integrates professional practice into the learning process, requiring students to shadow a qualified healthcare professional (from a different profession) for half a day. Students complete a reflective statement upon their learning experience on their return.

A three-year programme was established for practitioners who work with acutely ill and injured children and young people. Courses were held in urban and rural areas of Scotland and more than 2,000 NHS staff, including nurses, paramedics, doctors and allied health professionals, took part. Three-day training comprised clinical skills updates, scenario-based teaching and observed structural clinical examinations. As a result, NHS Scotland says care delivery to children, young people and their families has improved in community and hospital environments.

RATIONALE:

Parent presence during invasive procedures and/or resuscitation is a relatively underdeveloped and controversial practice. Much of the concern stems from the apprehension of the medical community.

OBJECTIVES:

To evaluate whether implementation of formal practice guidelines and corresponding interprofessional education would improve clinicians' sense of preparation and comfort in providing parents with options during their children's procedures.

METHODS:

OBJECTIVE:

To measure changes in pharmacy and medical students' physician-pharmacist collaboration scores resulting from a workshop designed to promote understanding of the others' roles in health care.

METHODS:

More than 88% of first-year pharmacy (n = 215) and medical (n = 205) students completed the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration on 3 occasions in order to establish a baseline of median scores and to determine whether the scores were influenced by an interprofessional workshop.

RESULTS:

AIM: To investigate the nature of student engagement in interprofessional interaction while on placement.

BACKGROUND: Due to continuing emphasis on improving interprofessional collaboration, UK educational establishments are required to offer pre-qualifying health and social care students interprofessional education in order that they acquire relevant competencies. However, few formal interprofessional education initiatives occur in practice settings and little is known about pre-qualifying students' non-formal learning about interprofessional issues while on placement.

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19842962

OBJECTIVE:

To compare multi- and interdisciplinary team approaches concerning team process (teamwork) and team effectiveness (team performance and staff satisfaction) in German medical rehabilitation clinics.

DESIGN:

A cross-sectional study with a descriptive-explorative design. Setting: Eighteen medical rehabilitation clinics divided into two groups (somatic and psychosomatic indication fields).

SUBJECTS:

The 18 head physicians or psychotherapists in the clinics and their complete rehabilitation teams (n = 824).

MAIN MEASURES:

The introduction of a transformative technology into practice settings can affect the functioning of interprofessional teams, placing stress on interprofessional relationships, thus slowing adoption and change. This study explored the potential of an interprofessional education (IPE) approach to mediate this stress and facilitate the adoption of a transformative technology- Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT).