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OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare levels of nurse-physician collaboration and satisfaction with the decision-making process as reported by critical care nurses, resident physicians (residents), and attending physicians (attendings) in making decisions to transfer individual patients out of the critical care unit, and to assess if satisfaction predicts nurse retention.

DESIGN: Longitudinal descriptive correlational study using self-reporting instruments.

The psychometric assessment of a new instrument for measurement of the construct of nurse-physician collaboration in making specific patient care decisions. Collaboration and Satisfaction About Care Decisions (CSACD), is reported. Content validity for the tool was supported by literature review, nurse and physician experts, and potential subjects. In a pilot study 58 neonatal intensive care nurses' and resident physicians' responses showed variance; alpha reliability of the collaboration questions was 0.95.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and test two instruments measuring decision making about level of aggressiveness of intensive care unit (ICU) patient care. Decisions about Aggressiveness of Patient Care (DAC) measures care providers' general perceptions about decision making. Decisions about Aggressiveness of Patient Care for Specific Patients (DAC[SP]) measures perceptions in specific situations.

DESIGN: Two-phase psychometric instrument evaluation.

SETTING: Phase I, nationally mailed questionnaire. Phase II, northeastern medical center medical ICU.

We prospectively studied the relationship between interdisciplinary collaboration and patient outcomes in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) using nurses' and residents' reports of amount of collaboration involved in making decisions about transferring patients from the MICU to a unit with a less intense level of care. Either readmission to the MICU or death was considered a negative patient outcome. Nurses' reports of collaboration were significantly (p = 0.02) and positively associated with patient outcome, controlling for severity of illness.

ICU nurses who are satisfied with their work are more likely to be retained, leading to institutional cost savings. In this study, higher levels of nurse-physician collaboration in making decisions about patient care were found to be very important to nurses' satisfaction.

There is increasing interest in the ability of health-care professionals to work together, and in understanding how such collaborative practice contributes to primary health care (PHC). Interprofessional education drives the need to identify and establish enabling mechanisms for collaborative practice in PHC. This study examines six PHC practice settings from both resource-constrained and resource-rich countries in order to identify not only the enabling mechanisms that facilitate collaborative practice to support PHC, but also barriers to such practice.

In this editorial, the author poses the question: where, and what, is the evidence that interprofessional education works? She have several answers to this question: if we don't do it, we won't be able to provide the evidence; where was the evidence for many educational innovations of the last decades when they were introduced (for example, problem-based learning, early patient contact and intern shadowing); and there is certainly emerging evidence that we need to manage teamwork and interprofessional communication better.

OBJECTIVES: This paper reports relevant findings of a pilot interprofessional education (IPE) project in the Schools of Medicine and Healthcare Studies at the University of Leeds. The purpose of the paper is to make a contribution towards answering 2 questions of fundamental importance to the development of IPE. Is there a demonstrable value to learning together? What types of IPE, under what circumstances, produce what type of outcomes?

In this paper, the authors define interprofessional education (IPE), describe models of IPE, and explore the problems of evaluating the IPE learning experience. Changing the way we educate health professionals is key to achieving system change and to ensuring that health providers have the necessary knowledge and training to work effectively in interprofessional teams within the evolving health care system.

In this Letter to the Editor, published in the Journal of Inteprofessional Care, doctor, professor, and researcher Jill Thistlethwaite reflects on the progress of (and challenges facing) interprofessional education and practice in Australia and New Zealand.

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