A kickstart guide to interprofessional fieldwork (clinical placements)
Based on experiences with interprofessional education in health professional education, this guide provides the key approaches to establish effective interdisciplinary/interprofessional team learning during clinical placements/rotations. The guide can be used to establish an interprofessional team based placement or program of placements with multiple industry hosts. The guide gives an overview of the essential dimensions required to establish and evaluate interprofessional placements. This includes tips, suggested readings and several proforma tools.
Communities of clinical practice in action: Doing whatever it takes
Ethnographic examination of nine communities of clinical practice, in one general practice setting, caring for patients with long-term conditions. The study finds that CoCP are driven by the moral imperative to care, at some cost, accounting for the ‘messiness’ of community-based care.
Transition to practice: can rural interprofessional education make a difference?
This study investigated student learning experiences over the first two complete years of the programme, comparing responses from participating students with those from a cohort of non-participating peers. This study finds that if multiple learning objectives can be met concurrently in well supported rural IPE programmes, learning outcomes can be maximised for a wide range of health professional students in ways that are sustainable and beneficial for local communities.
Patients’ and health professionals’ perceptions of teamwork in primary care
This study aimed to test both the feasibility of undertaking a collaborative method of enquiry as a means of investigating patient perceptions about teamwork in the context of their current health care, and also to compare and contrast these views with those of their usual health professionals in New Zealand suburban health practice settings.
Interprofessional education in a rural clinical setting: case study
An interprofessional programme, with cohorts of students from six different health professions, was developed from an initial business case and implemented as one of two parallel rural sites. First-year results indicate significant community commitment and very positive student feedback in relation to local hospitality, feeling part of the healthcare team, learning from students of other disciplines and much greater appreciation of the rural health environment. Students report greatly increased confidence in working with Maˉori, and enjoy producing their community projects.
Interprofessional education for physiotherapy, medical and dietetics students: a pilot programme
This study aimed to test the feasibility of delivering an interprofessional component within existing health professional courses for medicine, physiotherapy and dietetics at the University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand. Survey results indicated pre-existing positive attitudes to interprofessional practice and education among students. There was a statistically significant increase in positive attitude towards such practice and education, and increased confidence in the effectiveness of heath care teams.
Interprofessional learning: The solution to collaborative practice in primary care
This paper outlines the basis of interprofessional education, its relationship to interdisciplinary teamwork in primary care clinical practice, and describes a New Zealand model of postgraduate interprofessional education. Barriers to the implementation of interprofessional education in NZ were identified as well as possible solutions. In NZ, despite health authorities advocating clinical teamwork and interprofessional education, a variety of structural and attitudinal barriers challenge the development and practice of interprofessional education.
Interprofessional education gets big boost in rural communities
For the first time [from 2012], New Zealand nursing, medical, physiotherapy, pharmacy and dental students have a chance to participate in a purpose-built interprofessional programme of clinically-based learning as one component of their final year courses.
Five years on: Influences on early-career health professionals from an IPE program
This longitudinal study aimed to ascertain former students' perceptions of and influences from a final-year pre-registration, rurally-located, clinically-based, 5-week interprofessional program on their subsequent work and career in the health professions. The study found that this work reports positive influences on subsequent careers among respondents who had previously participated as final-year students in the IPE program, particularly with respect to interprofessional working, rural health, and contextual and cultural influences.
Interprofessional postgraduate education in primary health care: Is it making a difference?
This paper explores attitudes to, and perceptions of, the impact of interprofessional postgraduate education for primary healthcare professionals, based on a postal survey of 153 primary healthcare professionals undertaking postgraduate qualifications in New Zealand. This study found that interprofessional postgraduate qualification study for primary health care professionals in New Zealand resulted in personal and professional benefit for individuals and their clinical practice, and increased understanding about their own and other health professionals’ roles.