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The need for interprofessional education is now firmly embedded in undergraduate healthcare curricula frameworks in Northern Ireland and has a role to play in preparation for professional practice. A questionnaire determining students' "readiness" for interprofessional education has been widely used and reported in the literature but there are other factors that contribute to students' abilities to learn in an interprofessional context.

INTRODUCTION:

Interprofessional collaborative practices are increasingly recognized as an effective way to deal with complex health problems. However, health sciences students continue to be trained in specialized programs and have little occasion for learning in interdisciplinary contexts.

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT:

INTRODUCTION:

Collaboration, within and between healthcare teams, facilitates effective healthcare. Internationally, the development of interprofessional education, as a means to facilitate more effective teamwork in health care, has been recognized for over forty years.

OBJECTIVE:

The aim of this paper is to evaluate students' attitudes toward the influence of interprofessional education on improvement of collaboration and teamwork.

METHODS:

BACKGROUND:

Falls are a common and important clinical problem, and with ageing populations worldwide it is important for health care professionals to learn about falls management. The multidisciplinary nature of falls teams also provides an ideal opportunity for interprofessional collaboration in teaching.

CONTEXT:

In this article, we describe a pilot multidisciplinary falls assessment and prevention workshop for second-year medical students at a London medical school.

INNOVATION AND IMPLICATIONS:

BACKGROUND:

Active patient-based learning by working together at an interprofessional clinical education ward (CEW) increases collaborative and professional competence among students.

AIM:

To assess the patients' perceptions of collaborative and communicative aspects of care when treated by interprofessional student teams as compared to usual care.

METHOD:

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:

Student-run clinics (SRCs) are widespread, but studies on their educational impact are limited. We surveyed preclinical medical, nursing, and pharmacy students about their experiences in a hepatitis B elective which provided opportunities to they could volunteer at hepatitis B screening and vaccination SRCs. Student responses revealed positive perceptions of the volunteer experience. Benefits included interacting with patients, developing clinical skills, providing service to disadvantaged populations, and collaborating with health professional peers.

OBJECTIVE:

To implement a simulated interprofessional rounding experience using human patient simulators as a required activity for third-year pharmacy students in a clinical assessment course.

DESIGN:

Interprofessional student teams consisting of pharmacy, medical, and physician assistant students participated in a simulated interprofessional rounding experience in which they provided comprehensive medical care for a simulated patient in an inpatient setting.

ASSESSMENT: