Interprofessional education and collaborative practice policies and law: an international review and reflective questions

Building organizational and strategic interprofessional collaboration and partnerships: a case study

Developing organizational strategic partnerships is important to advance initiatives such as research, training/education, and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) with a global perspective. Commitments to collaborative leadership, intentional partnership, coordination, and progress, thematically represent the series of critical decisions and actions collectively required to achieve strategic alliance success. The purpose of this paper is to describe the evidenced-informed framework and systematic processes involved in building successful strategic organizational and collaborative partnerships for InterprofessionalResearch.Global to expand and enhance opportunities for IPC on mutually beneficial initiatives. The conceptual model for effective collaborative partnerships by Butt et al. (2008) provided a framework for InterprofessionalResearch.Global to develop two strategic organizational partnerships consistent with its mission, vision, and goals to explore interprofessional research and policy gaps through global research partnerships, grow and sustain communities of practice, and mobilize evidence-informed interprofessional education and collaborative practice across multiple and diverse contexts. These organizational partnerships are defined by a Memorandum of Understanding with clear expectations and mechanisms of communication, defined priority areas and timelines for collaborative efforts, mutual understanding of the purposes of each relationship, and timeline and expectations for periodic evaluation.

Interprofessional Collaboration in Complex Patient Care Transition: A Qualitative Multi-Perspective Analysis

Healthcare professionals often feel challenged by complex patients and the associated care needs during care transition. Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is considered an effective approach in such situations. However, a fragmented healthcare system can limit IPC. This study explored experiences of Swiss healthcare professionals regarding complex patient care transition and the potential of IPC. Professionals from nursing, medicine, psychology, physiotherapy, dietetics and nutrition, social service, occupational therapy, and speech therapy were included. A qualitative between-method triangulation design was applied, with two focus group discussions and ten individual interviews. The combination of different data-collection methods allowed us to explore complex patient care transition and to systematically add perspectives of healthcare professionals from different care settings. Three main themes were identified: (1) Participants described their vision of an ideal complex patient care transition, i.e., the status they would like to see implemented; (2) participants reported challenges in complex patient care transition as experienced today; and (3) participants suggested ways to improve complex patient care transition by IPC. This study highlighted that healthcare professionals regarded IPC as an effective intervention to improve complex patient care transition. It emerged that sustainable implementation of IPC across care organizations is currently limited in Switzerland. In the absence of strong and direct promotion of IPC by the healthcare system, professionals in clinical practice can further promote IPC by finding hands-on solutions to overcome organizational boundaries.

Determining a common understanding of interprofessional competencies for pre-registration health professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand: A Delphi study

There is growing awareness that factors such as the growing incidence of co-morbidity and increasing complexity of patient health needs cannot be addressed by health professionals practicing in isolation. Given this, there is an increasing emphasis on preparing students in health-related programs for effective interprofessional practice. Less clear, however, are the specific skills and clinical or learning opportunities necessary for students to develop effectiveness in interprofessional practice. These factors drove a team associated with a tertiary health education provider in Hamilton, New Zealand to transform traditional clinical student experiences in the form of an interprofessional student-assisted clinic. The clinic was intended, in part, to provide students with opportunities to learn and experience interprofessionalism in practice but was hampered by limited information available regarding the specific skill requirements necessary for students in New Zealand to learn in this context. In this Delphi study, we synthesize national expert opinion on student competency indicators necessary for effective interprofessional practice. The resultant set of indicators is presented and opportunities for application and further research discussed. The paper offers guidance to others seeking to innovate health curricula, develop novel service-oriented learning experiences for students, and foster interprofessional practice competence in the future health workforce.