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This study set out to explore roles of, and relationships between, nurses and doctors currently working in New Zealand primary care settings. Findings indicate that effective interprofessional relationships between individual doctors and nurses can, and often do, exist in New Zealand primary care settings, although they are not universal. The identification and separation of vocational and business roles, and the development of professional identity, form the basis for a theory of trust development in nurse-doctor interprofessional relationships in New Zealand primary care.

This paper is based on an address given (in collaboration with Eileen McKinlay and Tony Dowell) at the WIPA Long Term Conditions Symposium, Porirua, March 2006.

This study retrospectively investigates clinical workplace providers’ perspectives on their participation over the first 3 years of an IPE programme in a New Zealand rural community with a high Māori population.  From the providers’ perspectives, the programme met its objectives. Furthermore, providers noted several students had re-located back to the area to work as health professionals, suggesting investment in the programme added long-term value to the community.

In the health professional education literature, there is a need for information about the teaching and learning of medical laboratory sciences for clinical practice. This reflection-on-practice describes how an orofacial pathology interprofessional education (IPE) initiative was designed and implemented. Aspects to consider for upscaling the initiative include staffing, scheduling, assessment, and cultural perspectives.

This research explores the influence of primary care practice interior architecture on face-to-face on-the-fly communication for collaborative care. An observational study was undertaken to compare face-to-face informal interactions between staff in three primary care practices of differing interior architecture. Data collected from practices included: direct observations floor plans, photographs, interviews, and surveys.

This integrative review highlights the need to look critically at the body of research purported to investigate interprofessional collaboration in primary care settings and suggests the value of using direct observational methods to elucidate this. Direct observation of collaborative practice in everyday work settings holds promise as a method to better understand and articulate the complex phenomena of interprofessional collaboration, yet only a small number of studies to date have attempted to directly observe such practice.

This study describes and compares evaluation feedback from students in undergraduate nursing and medicine programmes about the learning outcomes of an interprofessional education initiative. Findings were interpreted to indicate that students from both programmes valued the learning outcomes, and this was greater at the end of the session. Notably, the perceived value of interprofessional learning was higher for nursing students than medical students before and after the session.

This evaluation explored student and tutor reactions to IPE, and any changes in perceptions and attitudes. A workplace-based, 6-hour IPE pilot on cancer care, led by clinical tutors, was undertaken in a New Zealand hospital.  Both students and tutors reported benefits from having IPE in the workplace environment, with cancer care seen as a suitable topic. Students reported a better understanding of professional roles, skills and the provision of collaborative care, and suggested other professions should be included in future IPE.

This article is the first of two “back-to-back” perspectives by professionals debating opposing views as to whether IPE in the undergraduate years is essential to building teamwork skills in general practice.  This perspective argues it is too late to start learning teamwork skills as graduates, when clinical responsibility and patient-care stakes are high. For any complex clinical skill, practice for novices is best done in a safe learning environment, and teamwork is no exception.

Cases constructed from multiple data sources illustrate the complexity of day-to-day, interprofessional, interagency multimorbidity care. While consultation is the most frequent mode of professional interaction, targeted coordinated and collaborative interactions (including the patient) are highly effective activities. Greater attention should be given to developing and facilitating these interactions and determining who should lead them.