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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.

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.

BACKGROUND:

Most services provided by health and social care organisations for older people living at home rely on interprofessional working (IPW). Although there is research investigating what supports and inhibits how professionals work together, less is known about how different service models deliver care to older people and how effectiveness is measured. The aim of this study was to describe how IPW for older people living at home is delivered, enacted and evaluated in England.

METHOD:

A Communities of Practice (CoPs) approach was used to enhance interprofessional practice in seven clinical sites across Alberta. Participating staff were free to decide the area of practice to focus on and the actions to be implemented. All practice changes implemented by the CoPs related to either improving communications (e.g., introduction of joint care meetings) or information transfer (e.g., streamlining of admission and discharge processes).

Caring for older adults has become increasingly complex due to multiple health and societal factors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an interprofessional community-based educational project on students' attitudes toward other health care professions and older adults. A pretest and posttest quasi-experimental research design was implemented with 64 participating students from four health care professions (nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and pharmacy).

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19012146

Future health professionals are often educated with other students of their same discipline when, in practice, they will be working with professionals from other backgrounds to provide care for the patient. Complex issues of ethical concern are common to health professionals due to modern technology. This paper describes the evolution of an interprofessional bioethics course that had a unique combination of students and faculty. Innovative teaching methods were utilized and continuously refined based on student evaluations.

INTRODUCTION:

Interprofessional education (IPE) is interactive and constructivist in nature and requires specific facilitation skills to engage participants in a unique body of content, interpersonal interaction, and learning from each other. This article describes the development and testing of a scale, the Interprofessional Facilitation Scale (IPFS), to assess educators' skills in facilitating IPE.

METHODS:

Institutions are increasingly considering interprofessional education (IPE) as a means to improve health care and reduce medical errors in the United States. Effective implementation of IPE within health professions education requires a strategic institutional approach to ensure longevity and sustainability.

Respect is important in the creation of a positive perioperative work environment and effective OR teams. Low scores for respect in the OR on an employee opinion survey and responses on a more customized survey that examined issues associated with respect prompted leaders at the University Health Network to undertake a multiyear organizational strategy to address respect and quality of worklife initiatives. An interprofessional quality of worklife task force convened to create an action plan to address the outcomes of the surveys.