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A historical review was conducted to examine the advances made, nationally and internationally, in interdisciplinary health professional education since the mid-1960s. One hundred and nineteen articles were reviewed and divided by decade into the following subheadings: models, courses, communication/group process issues, and international perspectives. Twenty-seven articles, categorized as models, defined the conceptual field, described curriculum and program development, or provided a framework for evaluation.

Appropriate collaboration and communication among health professionals is viewed as increasingly important in meeting the challenges of today's health care system. Student socialization to interdisciplinary practice is thought to be facilitated through interdisciplinary academic and clinical learning experiences during the educational program. The purpose of this article is to identify factors commonly cited as facilitating and inhibiting interdisciplinary education, to provide insight for the development of successful interdisciplinary education projects.

In January 2010, Western University of Health Sciences launched the first phase of its Interprofessional Education (IPE) program. Our mission is to produce humanistic healthcare professionals who practice collaborative patient-centered care. The university wide comprehensive IPE program model includes didactic, experiential and clinical care phases. The first phase of the IPE program, didactic, rolled out during the 2009-2010 academic year. While the data from the first year is still being evaluated, initial indicators reveal the launching of the first year of the program was a success.

The past decade witnessed momentum toward redesigning the U.S. health care system with the intent to improve quality of care. To achieve and sustain this change, health professions education must likewise reform to prepare future practitioners to optimize their ability to participate in the new paradigm of health care delivery.

In response to the call for tools to measure collaboration in interprofessional settings, an Ambulatory Team Observed Structured Clinical Evaluation (ATOSCE) was developed to measure collaboration/teamwork behaviors and skills in a realistic simulation for graduate students in the healthcare professions. Participants rated the ATOSCE a realistic and valuable learning experience.

Health professional education programs increasingly incorporate interprofessional education (IPE) activities into curricula in response to evolving health policy and accreditation requirements in an effort to highlight the benefits of, and prepare students for, interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP). As such, there is a need for statistically valid instruments designed to assess baseline student perceptions regarding IPE and IPCP.

The author argues that while traditional intelligence tests have been validated almost entirely against school performance, the evidence that they measure abilities which are essential to performing well in various life outcomes is weak. Most of the validity studies are correlational in nature and fail to control for the fact that social class might be a 3rd variable accounting for positive correlations between test scores and occupational success, and between level of schooling achieved and occupational success.

Questionnaires were used to assess (a) the factors intensive care unit resident physicians (N = 33) and nurses (N = 57) perceived as influential in making decisions about level of aggressiveness of patient care (LAC), (b) who residents and nurses believed should be involved versus who was involved in decision making, and (c) the amount of collaboration they perceived in their practices. Questionnaires then were used to assess decision making about 314 patients.

The authors respond to the model of nurse-physician interaction described in: Corser, W.D. (1998). A Conceptual Model of Collaborative Nurse-Physician Interactions: The Management of Traditional Influences and Personal Tendencies. Research and Theory for Nursing Practice, 12(4), 325-341.

This journal article presents an interprofessional faculty tool kit for preparing professional nurses with basic knowledge, skills, and attitudes in oral health promotion and disease prevention.