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To elicit nurses' opinions on five proposed models of maternity care in Ontario, to examine barriers to collaborative practice, and to identify factors that would encourage nurses to practise in the area of intrapartum care, a survey was mailed to a stratified random sample of nurses in Ontario (N = 750). Participants were asked whether they would consider practising in one or more of the five proposed models of maternity care. Almost half the participants endorsed the model of nurses' providing labour and delivery care to patients of family physicians and obstetricians.

STUDY DESIGN:

Questionnaire survey.

OBJECTIVE:

To elicit orthopedic surgeons' attitudes toward chiropractic.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA:

Orthopedic surgeons and chiropractors often attend to similar patient populations, but little is known about the attitudes of orthopedic surgeons toward chiropractic.

METHODS:

BACKGROUND: Patient-focused care provided by an interprofessional team has long been presented as the preferred method of primary care delivery. Community pharmacists should and can provide leadership for many clinical and managerial activities within the primary care team.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which community pharmacists are prepared to be members of the health care team, and to assess their support for general expansion of clinical responsibilities.

The purpose of this study is to examine referrals of nurse practitioners providing primary healthcare (PHC NPs) to better understand how PHC NPs collaborate with other healthcare professionals and contribute to interprofessional care. The analysis is based on the data from a survey of 378 PHC NPs registered in Ontario, Canada in 2008. Overall, 69% of PHC NPs made referrals to family physicians (FPs) and 67% of PHC NPs received referrals from FPs. Almost 50% of PHC NPs had bidirectional referrals between them and FPs. Eighty-nine percent of PHC NPs made referrals to specialist physicians.

Existing validated measures of pharmacist-physician collaboration focus on measuring attitudes toward collaboration and do not measure frequency of interactions that comprise actual collaborative behavior. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop and validate an instrument to measure the frequency of collaboration between general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists from the GP's perspective.

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17456690

OBJECTIVES:

To explore final-year physiotherapy students' perceptions and experiences of interprofessional learning in the university and placement setting.

STUDY DESIGN:

Focus group and mixed qualitative and quantitative questionnaire.

SETTING:

Coventry University.

PARTICIPANTS:

Third-year physiotherapy students at Coventry University.

METHODS:

BACKGROUND: Very little research has been conducted in the area of depression among older home care clients using personal support services. These older adults are particularly vulnerable to depression because of decreased cognition, comorbid chronic conditions, functional limitations, lack of social support, and reduced access to health services. To date, research has focused on collaborative, nurse-led depression care programs among older adults in primary care settings. Optimal management of depression among older home care clients is not currently known.

Following completion of an interprofessional simulation program for rapid response and code blue events, we explored hospital unit nurses' perspectives of the training, through a mixed-methods analysis. The results of this study advocate for the use of simulation training in preparing nurses and promoting communication among team members, effective teamwork, and early recognition of clinically deteriorating patients. This study provides support for the implementation and continued use of simulation interprofessional programs in hospital settings.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine new-graduate nurses' perceptions of the influence of authentic leadership and structural empowerment on the quality of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare work environments.

BACKGROUND: Although the challenges associated with true interprofessional collaboration are well documented, new-graduate nurses may feel particularly challenged in becoming contributing members. Little research exists to inform nurse leaders' efforts to facilitate effective collaboration in acute care settings.