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Almost all information about interprofessional education (IPE) comes from a few western countries; little from the rest of the world. This paper helps to rectify that omission. It reports the first phase of a study of "shared learning" between health professions in "medical sciences education" in the Islamic Republic of Iran based on a documentary search and national survey of all government affiliated medical sciences universities (MSUs) with examples which meet some of the criteria for IPE.

CONTEXT: Current trends in medical education reflect the changing health care environment. An increasingly large and diverse student population, a move to more distributed models of education, greater community involvement and an emphasis on social accountability, interprofessional education and student-centred approaches to learning necessitate new approaches to faculty development to help faculty members respond effectively to this rapidly changing landscape.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has a strong history of embracing staff empowerment and shared decision making. Shared governance for nursing was implemented in 1989; a separate allied health structure was created in 1999. The two operated in parallel with few occasions for interface, and with little collaboration. With the beginning of the medical center's efforts to pursue perfect patient care in 2002, there was a marked increase in the frequency of interprofessional initiatives and collaborations in the organization.

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21425913

This article draws on the findings from a mixed methods study with practitioners who qualified from joint training programmes in learning disability nursing and social work and explores the impact on professional identity of such programmes. Although several joint programmes are well established, very little research has been carried out with those who have qualified from them. These practitioners have experienced a kind of training quite unlike that offered by singular education programmes, incorporating a dual socialisation process, which has been neither analysed nor theorised.

OBJECTIVES:

To report the extent to which the placement of paramedic practitioner students (PPSs) in accredited general practice (GP) training practices supported their development as autonomous, patient-centred practitioners and fostered interprofessional learning.

DESIGN:

A case study method was used. Sources of data included semi-structured telephone interviews (eight PPSs, eight GP trainers), an online end of placement survey and placement and assessment documentation. Interview data were transcribed and analysed using the constant comparative method.

The authors designed a participatory qualitative research study to develop a collaborative partnership between palliative care practitioners in Canada and in Chile. The research goal was to support the provision of palliative care in vulnerable settings through a participatory knowledge exchange process using qualitative and participatory methodologies. The study involved an interprofessional palliative care team from a primary health care centre in Chile and 5 adults receiving palliative care and their relatives.

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20860594