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With longer survival, individuals living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are facing a multitude of health-related challenges due to HIV, its associated concurrent health conditions, and treatments. Despite the need for rehabilitation, few rehabilitation professionals work with people living with HIV, with many feeling they lack adequate knowledge and skills to assess and treat this population.

Promoting teamwork in health and social care requires an understanding of the interface between interprofessional practice (IPP) and interprofessional education (IPE). A study with two parts, one qualitative and one quantitative, examined this interface in Norway. The first used focus groups to assess IPP rewards, barriers, and facilitating factors among practitioners in clinical settings. The second utilized an online survey to measure IPE attitudes, barriers, and facilitating factors among senior administrators in the educational system.

Interprofessional (IP) collaboration is recognized as critical for patient-centred care. The clinical setting is an ideal environment for students to learn the competencies required to effectively work with providers from other professions. To enhance traditional clinical placements, we propose an IP mentoring approach, defined as learning that takes place between providers and students who are from different disciplines or health professions. In IP mentoring, students have primary relationships with their preceptors, but also have interactions with providers from other professions.

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:

Although a core component of many current health-care directions, interprofessional collaboration continues to challenge educators and health professionals. This paper aims to inform the development of collaborative practice by illuminating the experiences of collaborating within rehabilitation teams. The researchers focused on experiences that transcended team members' professional role categorizations in order to bring individuals and their lived experiences to the forefront.

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

INTRODUCTION:

Studies exploring the role of patients in interprofessional education (IPE) are found primarily in undergraduate programmes with few reporting on the postgraduate (continuing professional development) setting. This paper describes an interprofessional quality improvement project around the management of back pain in a primary care setting where patients were part of the practice team.

METHODS:

The current shortage of health professionals necessitates new approaches to clinical education that can expand the number of undergraduate students undertaking clinical placements without increasing the burden on clinical staff or placing patients at risk. Interprofessional education has the potential to help increase clinical capacity whilst enriching students' clinical experience. This paper reports on a project which investigated the potential for interprofessional education to increase undergraduate clinical placement capacity in clinical settings.

Evidence suggests that the utilisation of community palliative care services varies considerably according to different patient characteristics. Most literature describes this variability, but does not address why such differences exist. Exploring the processes underpinning referral making rather than simply describing the outcomes of referrals may further our understanding of this variability. The aim of this article was to investigate the influences on referral decisions made within community palliative care services.

"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.