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Collaborative practice is seen as a core aspect of professional practice and, therefore, a focus of professional education. Current interprofessional and quality assurance literature provides enumeration and discussion of a range of competencies required for effective collaborative practice. Case studies of education and training related to collaborative competences rarely discuss the nature of influences on development, delivery and learning.

While more flexible models of service delivery are being introduced in UK health and social care, little is known about the impact of new roles, particularly support worker roles, on the work of existing practitioners. This action research study aimed to explore the impact of one such new role, that of interprofessional care co-ordinators (IPCCs). The general (internal) medical service of a UK hospital uses IPCCs to provide support to the interprofessional team and, in doing so, promote efficiency of acute bed use.

AIM: This paper presents findings from a multimethod evaluation of an interprofessional training ward placement for medical, nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy students.

This paper reports the findings from an evaluation of a pilot interprofessional training ward project for pre-qualification medical, nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy students. This initiative required sustained collaboration from staff based in two National Health Service (NHS) trusts and four schools in three universities. The ward was based on a model of interprofessional education developed in Sweden, but adapted in the light of this experience and also to meet the needs and aspirations of the training ward stakeholders in London.

Interprofessional education (IPE) is commonly advocated in policy documentation as a means of enhancing collaboration between heath and social care staff. However, little is known about the effects of this type of education. This paper reports findings from a systematic review which was commissioned to search and begin assessing the quality of the published evidence relating to the effects of IPE on staff involved in the care of adults with mental health problems. Results from this study indicate that there is a current lack of rigorous evidence into the effects of IPE in this field.

BACKGROUND: As patient care becomes more complex, effective collaboration between health and social care professionals is required. However, evidence suggests that these professionals do not collaborate well together. Interprofessional education (IPE) offers a possible way forward in this area.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the usefulness of IPE interventions compared to education in which the same professions were learning separately from one another.

This paper describes the multi-method evaluation of an interprofessional training ward placement for medical, nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy students. Unique in the UK, and an extension of pioneering work in Sweden (Wahlström et al. 1997, Wahlstroöm & Sandén 1998), this interprofessional clinical placement allowed senior pre-qualifying students, under the supervision of practitioners, to plan and deliver interprofessional care for a group of orthopaedic and rheumatology patients.

The authors assert that the interprofessional health care community needs more evidence and less rhetoric.

This paper presents final results from a 15-month project which evaluated the effectiveness of interprofessional education (IPE) for first and second year medical, nursing and dental students on a community-based placement. The paper initially discusses the current issues within the IPE literature. It goes on to provide background information of this placement. In presenting the project's methodology, the paper describes the use of a 'process-based' approach which tracked the education and social processes connected to IPE.

Learning between professions has been widely invoked in health and social care in the belief that it improves collaboration in practice. Evidence to substantiate that belief is, however, elusive. Obstacles to the rigorous evaluation of interprofessional education are formidable, but this article reports progress towards establishing an evidence base. It describes two reviews. One is subject to criteria for Cochrane Collaboration, the other less constrained. Findings are reported for the first and methodology is discussed for the second.