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Spirituality is an essential aspect of a patient's health that can and should be integrated into routine health care. Despite recommendations of accrediting organizations such as the Association of American Medical Colleges, the National Association of Social Workers, and the Association of Professional Chaplains, there is little well defined curriculum focusing on interprofessional spiritual assessment. This article explores one program's use of an interprofessional approach in teaching spiritual assessment to students from medicine, social work, and chaplaincy.

How Allied Health Professional (AHP) students and educational providers within England are redefining professionalism is the focus of this small scale case study. A single case study design was used to explore how AHP students viewed how they had learnt to be professional.

Interprofessional education (IPE) in health and social care undergraduate education is a key governmental driver [DOH, 2001. Working Together, Learning Together. A Framework for Lifelong Learning in the NHS. HMSO, London]. In the UK, IPE has been advocated and developed as a means to encourage effective collaboration in order to improve public sector services [Barr, H., Ross, F., 2006. Mainstreaming interprofessional education in the United Kingdom: a position paper. Journal of Interprofessional Care 20 (2), 96-104].

CONTEXT: The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for supporting interprofessional communication is becoming increasingly common in health care. However, little research has explored how ICTs affect interprofessional communication, or how novices are trained to be effective interprofessional ICT users. This study explores the interprofessional communication strategies of nurses and doctors (trainees and experts) when their communications were mediated by a specific ICT: an electronic patient record (EPR).

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20178422

CONTEXT:

Interprofessional education of pre-licensure students is viewed as an important precursor to developing healthcare professionals who are able to work collaboratively.

OBJECTIVES:

This study conducted a program evaluation of an innovative interprofessional communication skills initiative which incorporated problem-based learning, cooperative learning and standardized patients.

METHODS:

INTRODUCTION: In this study designed with adequate statistical power to detect relevant training effects, investigators evaluated Crisis Resource Management (CRM) training during a simulated patient crisis. This study is guided by the Team Effectiveness Conceptual Model by Kozlowski and Ilgen.

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22250645

BACKGROUND:

The hurricane disasters of 2005 and the threat of pandemic infectious diseases compel medical educators to develop emergency preparedness training for medical students and other health care professional students.

DESCRIPTION:

"Seamless Care" was one of 21 grants awarded by Health Canada to inform policymakers of the effectiveness of interprofessional education in promoting collaborative patient-centred practice among health professionals. The "Seamless Care" model of interprofessional education was designed with input from three Faculties at Dalhousie University (Medicine, Dentistry and Health Professions). The design was grounded in relevant learning theories--Social Cognitive Theory, Self-efficacy, Situated Learning theory and Constructivism.