PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22616414

Although interprofessional teamwork and collaboration are considered key elements for improving patient outcomes, there are few reports of controlled studies involving interprofessional training of health care learners in the ambulatory primary care setting. We describe an educational program for teams of nurse practitioners, family medicine residents and social work students to work together at clinical sites in the delivery of longitudinal care in primary care ambulatory clinics. Year 1 was a planning year.

Faculty from four disciplines at a small Liberal Arts College in an American Midwestern city collaborated on an interdisciplinary pre-service project. Students in nursing, physical therapy, social work and special education voluntarily participated in one of two group methods of teaching. The purpose of this study was to examine whether students learn interprofessional teaming more effectively from (i) discussion of research, faculty modeling and role-playing, or from (ii) discussion of research and role-playing.

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18202992

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).

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18412909

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate one ethics rounds model by describing nurses' and doctors' experiences of the rounds.

METHODS:

OBJECTIVE: National policy makers and psychiatric educators have established the goals of teaching and promoting interdisciplinary care as high priorities. This article describes the implementation of an interprofessional seminar for which the dual aims were to provide a knowledge base for treating individuals with serious mental illness and to teach how to work collaboratively with other disciplines.

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/18800283