Taking the long view: exploring the development of interprofessional education.

Interprofessional education (IPE) in health and social care has been well documented regarding student outcomes. Less has been written from the perspective of those who actually developed IPE. This study explores IPE within the context of a university partnership working with service providers in Southwest London (UK). We focused on the experiences and perspectives of 19 key players who were interviewed about the inception, implementation and development of IPE over 15 years. Our aim was to understand their views of IPE and its evolution over time. Interviewees provided different understandings of IPE, as well as contrasting views regarding its purpose and optimum delivery. Problems such as lack of central planning and the logistics of implementation were also discussed. Paradoxically, however, the participants highlighted positive outcomes and conveyed optimistic messages for the future. Despite various challenges and setbacks, a strong belief in the importance of IPE and a commitment to carrying it through were strong motivators contributing to finding solutions, as were building trust and positive relationships across professional and disciplinary boundaries.

Evaluation of an interprofessional practice placement in a UK in-patient palliative care unit.

This paper reports on undergraduate students' evaluation of a new hospice-based interprofessional practice placement (IPP) that took place in the voluntary sector from 2008 to 2009. Ward-based interprofessional training has been successfully demonstrated in a range of clinical environments. However, the multidisciplinary setting within a hospice in-patient unit offered a new opportunity for interprofessional learning. The development and delivery of the IPP initiative is described, whereby multidisciplinary groups of 12 students provided hands-on care for a selected group of patients, under the supervision of trained health care professionals. The placement was positively evaluated and students reported an increased understanding of both their own role and that of other professionals in the team. The evaluation also suggests that additional learning opportunities were provided by the in-patient palliative care unit. The results of this evaluation suggest that the in-patient unit of a hospice caring for patients with life-limiting illness provides a suitable environment to demonstrate and learn about interprofessional practice.

Interprofessional attitudes amongst undergraduate students in the health professions: a longitudinal questionnaire survey.

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional education (IPE) introduced at the beginning of pre-registration training for healthcare professionals attempts to prevent the formation of negative interprofessional attitudes which may hamper future interprofessional collaboration. However, the potential for IPE depends, to some extent, on the readiness of healthcare students to learn together. OBJECTIVES: To measure changes in readiness for interprofessional learning, professional identification, and amount of contact between students of different professional groups; and to examine the influence of professional group, student characteristics and an IPE course on these scores over time. DESIGN: Annual longitudinal panel questionnaire survey at four time-points of pre-registration students (n=1683) drawn from eight healthcare groups from three higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK. RESULTS: The strength of professional identity in all professional groups was high on entry to university but it declined significantly over time for some disciplines. Similarly students' readiness for interprofessional learning was high at entry but declined significantly over time for all groups, with the exception of nursing students. A small but significant positive relationship between professional identity and readiness for interprofessional learning was maintained over time. There was very minimal contact between students from different disciplines during their professional education programme. Students who reported gaining the least from an IPE course suffered the most dramatic drop in their readiness for interprofessional learning in the following and subsequent years; however, these students also had the lowest expectations of an IPE course on entry to their programme of study. CONCLUSION: The findings provide support for introducing IPE at the start of the healthcare students' professional education to capitalise on students' readiness for interprofessional learning and professional identities, which appear to be well formed from the start. However, this study suggests that students who enter with negative attitudes towards interprofessional learning may gain the least from IPE courses and that an unrewarding experience of such courses may further reinforce their negative attitudes.