Resource Center

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.

Abstract:

Describes a process to access and ensure safe consent for the development of resources, enabling health professionals and patients to talk using an innovative, respectful approach. An interprofessional class with learning outcomes focused on management of long-term conditions needed to understand typical examples of community-based interprofessional health-care teams in action.

Describes a process to access and ensure safe consent for the development of resources, enabling health professionals and patients to talk using an innovative, respectful approach. An interprofessional class with learning outcomes focused on management of long-term conditions needed to understand typical examples of community-based interprofessional health-care teams in action.

This study explored what students on a rural immersion IPE programme reported regarding shared living arrangements.  A qualitative survey question querying the most valuable aspects of the programme found many students highlighted the value of shared accommodation. There were five themes in the focus group data: Having fun together (yet learning); Formal learning through informal social interaction; Learning conflict resolution skills; It only goes so far: limitations to shared living arrangements; Not all living together has a negative impact.

This research examined how pedagogically naïve clinicians of different disciplines initially formed an IPE teaching team. A case study approach was undertaken with data collected over the first sixteen months of an IPE program. Data analysis using a grounded theory constant comparison approach revealed themes relating to the formation, development, and evolving sophistication of the teaching team from functioning, to co-ordinating, to co-operating, and finally to collaborating.

This research explored learners’ and facilitators’ views of an interprofessional education medicines pilot study involving medical students and pharmacy interns. Qualitative feedback was gathered from the participating learners and a facilitator focus group was undertaken. Medical student and pharmacy intern learners found the medicines topic and discipline grouping facilitated their learning. Some topics and groups of disciplines are ideally matched for IPE and such a nexus should be capitalised upon.

IPE programs for pre-registration health science students are largely offered within one institution. Sometimes, e.g. in small or regional institutions, or where larger institutions do not offer particular professional programs, it may be necessary to partner with other institutions to offer IPE. This study explored teacher perspectives of forming inter-institutional partnerships IPE. An interpretive descriptive approach was used to thematically analyse data from three focus groups.

Six strategies are designed to overcome commonly recognised problems and enable first-time teachers to more confidently develop or engage in IPE, thus supporting students to attain skills in interprofessional collaboration.  These include: join an existing IPE team; observe and collaborate with experienced IPE teachers; contribute to the development of new IPE programs; seek institutional support; undertake IPE evaluation and research; and gain high-level institutional endorsement.