There is growing evidence to support the contention that interprofessional education (IPE) at both pre and post-qualification levels will improve professionals' abilities to work more effectively in a team and to communicate more effectively with colleagues and patients. This body of evidence, however, is primarily concerned with nursing, medical and associated professionals and students, and there are few studies that include dental students and particularly where learning occurs with the dental care professions (DCP).

CONTEXT:

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18412893

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate whether ethics rounds stimulated ethical reflection.

METHODS:

Philosopher-ethicist-led interprofessional team ethics rounds concerning dialysis patient care problems were applied at three Swedish hospitals. The philosophers were instructed to stimulate ethical reflection and promote mutual understanding between professions but not to offer solutions. Questionnaires directly before and after rounds were answered by 194 respondents. The analyses were primarily content analysis with Boyd's framework but were also statistical in nature.

OBJECTIVE:

To assess the effect of a Crew Resource Management (CRM) intervention specifically designed to improve teamwork and communication skills in a multidisciplinary obstetrical setting.

METHOD:

The aim of this paper is to investigate interprofessional collaboration between general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists involved in the delivery of enhanced pharmacy services under the local pharmaceutical services (LPS) contract in England. Previous research suggests that a number of interprofessional barriers exist between community pharmacists and GPs which hinders the integration of community pharmacists into the primary health care team (PHCT).

During a longitudinal evaluation of a pre-qualifying interprofessional curriculum, health and social care students completed questionnaires concerning communication and teamwork skills and interprofessional learning and working. Data were collected on entry to their educational programme, during the second year of study, at qualification and after 9-12 months' qualified practice. This paper presents results from practice data from 414 professionals; 275 were educated on the interprofessional curriculum, 139 on previous uniprofessional curricula.

The first comprehensive report on the interprofessional relationships between foot and ankle surgeons in the UK is presented.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

A questionnaire was sent to orthopaedic surgeons with membership of the British Foot and Ankle Surgery Society (BOFAS), orthopaedic surgeons not affiliated to the specialist BOFAS and podiatrists specialising in foot surgery. The questionnaire was returned by 77 (49%) of the BOFAS orthopaedic consultant surgeons, 66 (26%) of non-foot and ankle orthopaedic consultant surgeons and 99 (73%) of the podiatric surgeons.

QUESTION UNDER STUDY/PRINCIPLES: Ambulatory care is a mandatory component of post-graduate training in general internal medicine. Academic outpatient clinics face challenges in training residents in terms of exposure to sufficient patient case-mix, diversity of clinical activities and continuity of care while fulfilling their mission to provide care to vulnerable populations. We report the development and evaluation of a new postgraduate curriculum in ambulatory care in Geneva, Switzerland, designed to overcome such challenges.

METHODS/DESCRIPTION:

Boundary violations that threaten professional-client relationships are rarely discussed at the coalface. There is an assumption that healthcare practitioners have the skills necessary to manage professional boundary dilemmas with clients. The issue, if addressed, is usually confined to discipline specific education and training. A one-day Professional Boundaries for Health Professionals (PBHP) training program was developed in response to real life practice dilemmas experienced by health practitioners across the continuum of care.