PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17456690

OBJECTIVES:

The Institute of Medicine called for the integration of interprofessional education (IPE) into health professions curricula, in order to improve health care quality. In response, we developed, implemented, and evaluated a campus wide IPE program, shifting from traditional educational silos to greater collaboration.

METHODS:

To develop and evaluate a classroom-based curriculum designed to promote interprofessional competencies by having undergraduate students from various health professions work together on system-based problems using quality improvement (QI) methods and tools to improve patient-centered care.

DESIGN:

This study aimed to identify the effects of interprofessional resuscitation skills teaching on medical and nursing students' attitudes, leadership, team-working and performance skills.

METHODS:

BACKGROUND: There is a need for tools by which to evaluate the beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes that underlie interprofessional socialization and collaborative practice in health care settings.

The Shriners Hospitals for Children-Canada has developed an innovative Interprofessional Education Program to help tomorrow's healthcare professionals gain the skills and knowledge they need to work effectively in teams to provide efficient, collaborative and family-centred care. Undergraduate students in nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy participated in group discussions, seminars by staff members and group presentations.

Work-integrated learning is essential to health professional education, but faces increasing academic and industry resource pressures. The aim of this pilot "Professional Practice Project" was to develop and implement an innovative education intervention for clinical educators across several health disciplines. The project used interprofessional collaboration as its underlying philosophy, and a participatory action research methodology in four cycles: Cycle 1: Formation of an interprofessional project executive and working party from academic staff.

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: