This study aims to contribute to the limited set of interactional studies of health occupational relations. A "negotiated order" perspective was applied to a multi-site setting to articulate the ways in which clinicians' roles, accountabilities and contributions to patient care are shaped by the care setting and are influenced by the management of patient pathways.

PROBLEM:

Nurse-physician communication affects patient safety. Such communication has been well studied using a variety of survey and observational methods; however, missing from the literature is an investigation of what constitutes effective and ineffective interprofessional communication from the perspective of the professionals involved. The purpose of this study was to explore nurse and physician perceptions of effective and ineffective communication between the two professions.

METHODS:

Nurses represent the largest occupational group of health care professionals in Australia. The ratio of nurses to population is relatively consistent, unlike other health care professional groups (including medical doctors and allied health staff) whose numbers decline as population density and distance from metropolitan areas increases. Nurses working in areas where other health care professionals are limited or absent have expanded scopes of practice with their work being more generalist than specialist.

E-learning is seen as offering possible solutions to the barriers of large scale interprofessional education. This paper discusses a study that explored the underlying pedagogical thinking employed by lecturers when planning e-learning materials for interprofessional education. The themes uncovered in the data were: "reflective spaces for creativity"; "from logistics to learner autonomy"; "authentic"; "constructivist approaches"; "inter-active learning to promote collaboration" and "bringing the patient/service user into the classroom".

BACKGROUND:

The health system must develop effective solutions to the growing challenges it faces with respect to individuals who suffer with mental health disorders and addictions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability and potential impact on outcomes of a knowledge translation system aimed at improving client-centered, evidence-based care for hospitalized individuals with schizophrenia.

METHODOLOGY:

OBJECTIVE: to explore the nature of intra- and interprofessional communication on delivery suites, with a particular focus on patient safety.

DESIGN: longitudinal study using contrasting forms of observation: ethnographic methods alongside the highly structured Interaction Process Analysis (IPA) framework.

SETTING: four contrasting delivery suites offering different models of care and serving different populations: two in the north of England and two in London.

PARTICIPANTS: the multidisciplinary delivery suite teams and visiting professionals from related areas.

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20441399

Primary care reform involving interprofessional team-based care is a global phenomenon. In Ontario, Canada, 150 Family Health Teams (FHTs) have been approved in the past few years. The transition to a FHT is complex involving many changes and the processes for collaborative teamwork are not clearly delineated. To support the transition to team-based care in FHTs, a project was undertaken to develop and implement a series of interprofessional protocols in four clinical areas.

OBJECTIVE:

To examine family health team (FHT) members' perspectives and experiences of interprofessional collaboration and perceived benefits.

DESIGN:

Qualitative case study using semistructured interviews.

SETTING:

Fourteen FHTs in urban and rural Ontario.

PARTICIPANTS:

Purposeful sample of the members of 14 FHTs, including family physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, dietitians, social workers, pharmacists, and managers.

METHODS:

BACKGROUND: