The demands on health and social care organisations require professions to work more collaboratively. During pre-registration training, health care and social work students learn within practice settings, supported by practice mentors. These settings are rich learning environments to experience interprofessional working (IPW) and for students to learn together through interprofessional practice learning (IPPL). There is, however, evidence that students' experiences of both are varied or limited. The value placed on IPW, and IPPL, is therefore of interest. This thesis will investigate practice mentors' attitudes to IPW and IPPL, and explore their perspectives of the enablers and barriers to these occurring in practice settings. A mixed-methods case study approach was used to measure the attitudes of practice mentors from health and social work, and to identify enablers and barriers to IPW, and IPPL for students. Online surveys and semi-structured face to face interviews were carried out with a range of professions within one Scottish health board and associated local authority. Results showed that attitudes to IPW, and IPPL for students were generally positive. Attitudes were not significantly affected by governing body, gender, area of work, years of experience, or prior experience of IPE. IPW was perceived to be enabled by shared processes and policies, IPPL for staff, effective communication, established teams, and shared processes and policies. Proximity to other professions and shared spaces encouraged informal communication and positive interprofessional relationships. Regular structured IPPL opportunities for students were limited. However, where opportunities did occur, this was linked to areas where practice mentors perceived that there was a strong interprofessional team identity. Although attitudes to IPW, and IPPL for students are positive, further work is needed to identify systems for improving IPW, to strengthen professions' identity as interprofessional teams, and to increase IPPL opportunities for students.

No description available.

Thesis (MCurr)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: see full text for abstract / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: sien volteks vir die opsomming

As the cost for health care delivery increases, so does the demand for access to care. However, individuals in a rural community often do not have access to the care they need. Shortages of rural health care professionals are an ever-increasing problem. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 sought to increase health care access by focusing on team-based care delivery. Thus, the need to educate health care students in the fundamentals of team-based practice has led to an increased emphasis on Interprofessional Education (IPE). While past research focused on urban IPE, a literature gap exists for the effects of a rural team-based educational experience on practice location decisions. This study examined how rural IPE influenced health profession students' perspectives of what it means to be a member of a rural health care team and explored what factors go into making decisions of where to live and provide care. Motivational Theory provided the framework for a mixed methods approach with data from student reflective journaling and a post-experience Q sort. Analysis yielded important understandings about the impact of rural IPE. Accordingly, having a rural IPE experience provided positive motivation for returning after graduation. Further, the time spent in rural IPE generated understandings of what it means to live and provide care to a rural community. One important new discovery gained is the clinical setting is not where most IPE took place. As a result, social interactions with fellow students and community members achieved the goals of rural IPE. Despite these influential findings, noted barriers to genuine rural IPE persisted. In the end, students, educators, and rural health care professionals need to be aware of the multiple factors that guide decisions of where to live and provide care.

<p>There are great expectations that collaboration among professions and various sectors will further develop health care and thus lead to improved public health. In the World Health Organization’s declaration “Health 21” the designated goal for health professions in the member nations in Europe by the year 2010 is to have developed health promotional competence, including teamwork and cooperation based on mutual respect for the expertise of various professions. The challenges faced by the interprofessional teams are, however, multifaceted, and these challenges place demands upon society, which, in turn, determines the fundamental conditions for collaboration among the health professions within the health care organizations.</p><p>This licentiate dissertation contains discourse and content analyses of interprofessional teamwork in health care. The major objective of this dissertation is to study and describe how the team members construct and create the content and significance of teams and teamwork among health professions. One specific goal has been to study how the members of a multi-professional health care team refer to their team, especially the discursive patterns that emerge and the function that these patterns has (I). The second specific goal has been to identify and describe the difficulties that the health professionals have experienced within their interprofessional teamwork. One purpose has been to enable discussions of the implications for interprofessional learning (II).</p><p>Focused group interviews with team members (n=32) from six teams were studied using discursive social psychological research approach. The analysis concentrated on the use of the pronouns “I”, “we” and “them”. The results were then analyzed in relation to theories on discursive membership and discursive communities (I). Individual semi-structured interviews with team members (n=18) from four of the six teams were carried out using critical incident techniques. The interviews were analysed via latent qualitative content analysis and the results were interpreted in the light of theories on sociology of professions and learning at work (II).</p><p>The findings showed that two discursive patterns emerged in the team members’ constructions of “we the team”. These patterns were designated knowledge synergy and trustful support (I). The following three themes that touched upon the difficulties of interprofessional teamwork were identified in the personal interviews: (A) difficulties concerning the teams’ dynamics that arose when the team members acted as representatives for their respective professions; (B) difficulties when the various contributions of knowledge interacted in the team; and (C) difficulties that were related to the surrounding organisation’s influence on the team (II).</p><p>The conclusion was reached that the discursive pattern provided rhetorical resources for the team members, both in order to reaffirm membership in the team and to promote their views with other care providers, but also to deal with difficulties regarding, for example, lack of unity in outlook. The conclusion was also drawn that, in addition to the individual consequences, one outcome of the perceived difficulties was that they caused limitations of the use of collaborative resources to arrive at a holistic view of the patient’s problems. Thus the patients could not be met in the desired manner.</p><p>The practical implications of the research project concern the development of teams in which various forms of interprofessional learning can influence the continued development of the team and the management of health care in regard to the importance of implementation processes and organisational learning.</p> / <p>Stora förväntningar ställs på att samarbete mellan yrkesgrupper och mellan sektorer ska utveckla hälso- och sjukvården och leda till en förbättrad folkhälsa. I Världshälsoorganisationens policydokument “Health21” anges exempelvis målsättningen att hälsoprofessionerna i de europeiska medlemsländerna till år 2010 ska ha utvecklat en hälsofrämjande kompetens som bland annat innefattar teamarbete och samarbete på basis av ömsesidig respekt för de olika professionernas expertis. Det interprofessionella teamets utmaningar är dock mångfacetterade och kräver uppmärksamhet från det samhälle som skapar villkoren för hälsoprofessionernas samarbete inom hälso- och sjukvårdens organisationer.</p><p>Denna licentiatavhandling innehåller diskurs- och innehållsanalytiska studier om interprofessionellt teamarbete i vården. Avhandlingens övergripandet syfte var att undersöka och beskriva hur teammedlemmar konstruerar och skapar innebörder av team och teamarbete mellan flera hälsoprofessioner. Det ena specifika syftet var att undersöka hur medlemmar i multiprofessionella vårdteam talar om sitt team, särskilt avseende de diskursiva mönster som framträdde och vilken funktion dessa mönster hade (studie I). Det andra specifika syftet var att identifiera och beskriva svårigheter som hälsoprofessioner har uppfattat vid interprofessionellt teamarbete, där avsikten även var att möjliggöra en diskussion om implikationer för interprofessionellt lärande (studie II).</p><p>Fokusgruppintervjuer med teammedlemmar (n=32) från sex team analyserades utifrån en diskursiv socialpsykologisk forskningsansats och fokuserade på användningen av pronomina ”jag”, ”vi” och ”de”. Fynden relaterades sedan till teorier om diskursivt medlemskap och diskursiva samhällen (studie I). Individuella semistrukturerade intervjuer med teammedlemmar (n=18) från fyra av de sex teamen genomfördes med critical incident-teknik. Intervjuerna analyserades via latent kvalitativ innehållsanalys och fynden tolkades utifrån teorier om professionssociologi och lärande i arbetet (studie II).</p><p>Resultaten visade att två diskursiva mönster framträdde i teammedlemmarnas konstruktioner av ”vi-som-team”. Dessa mönster benämndes kunskapssynergi och tillitsfullt stöd (studie I). Vid individuella intervjuer med teammedlemmar identifierades följande tre teman som rörde svårigheter vid interprofessionellt teamarbete; (i) svårigheter som gällde den teamdynamik som uppstod när teammedlemmarna agerade som företrädare för sina professioner i relation till teamet, (ii) svårigheter när medlemmarnas olika kunskapsbidrag interagerade i teamet och (iii) svårigheter som rörde den omgivande organisationens påverkan på teamet (studie II).</p><p>Konklusionen gjordes att de diskursiva mönstren utgjorde retoriska resurser för teammedlemmarna, både för att bekräfta medlemskapet i teamet, för att hävda sina åsikter i kontakter med andra vårdgivare (”de andra”) och även för att hantera uppfattade svårigheter beträffande exempelvis bristande samsyn. Vidare drogs slutsatsen att en konsekvens av de uppfattade svårigheterna var, förutom individuella konsekvenser, begränsningar i användandet av de gemensamma resurserna för att nå en helhetssyn på patientens problem och att patienterna inte kunde bemötas på det sätt som önskades.</p><p>Forskningsprojektets praktiska implikationer rörde teamutveckling där olika former av interprofessionellt lärande påverkar teamets fortsatta utveckling, samt ledning av hälso- och sjukvården avseende betydelsen av imple-menteringsprocesser och organisatoriskt lärande.</p>

There are great expectations that collaboration among professions and various sectors will further develop health care and thus lead to improved public health. In the World Health Organization’s declaration “Health 21” the designated goal for health professions in the member nations in Europe by the year 2010 is to have developed health promotional competence, including teamwork and cooperation based on mutual respect for the expertise of various professions. The challenges faced by the interprofessional teams are, however, multifaceted, and these challenges place demands upon society, which, in turn, determines the fundamental conditions for collaboration among the health professions within the health care organizations. This licentiate dissertation contains discourse and content analyses of interprofessional teamwork in health care. The major objective of this dissertation is to study and describe how the team members construct and create the content and significance of teams and teamwork among health professions. One specific goal has been to study how the members of a multi-professional health care team refer to their team, especially the discursive patterns that emerge and the function that these patterns has (I). The second specific goal has been to identify and describe the difficulties that the health professionals have experienced within their interprofessional teamwork. One purpose has been to enable discussions of the implications for interprofessional learning (II). Focused group interviews with team members (n=32) from six teams were studied using discursive social psychological research approach. The analysis concentrated on the use of the pronouns “I”, “we” and “them”. The results were then analyzed in relation to theories on discursive membership and discursive communities (I). Individual semi-structured interviews with team members (n=18) from four of the six teams were carried out using critical incident techniques. The interviews were analysed via latent qualitative content analysis and the results were interpreted in the light of theories on sociology of professions and learning at work (II). The findings showed that two discursive patterns emerged in the team members’ constructions of “we the team”. These patterns were designated knowledge synergy and trustful support (I). The following three themes that touched upon the difficulties of interprofessional teamwork were identified in the personal interviews: (A) difficulties concerning the teams’ dynamics that arose when the team members acted as representatives for their respective professions; (B) difficulties when the various contributions of knowledge interacted in the team; and (C) difficulties that were related to the surrounding organisation’s influence on the team (II). The conclusion was reached that the discursive pattern provided rhetorical resources for the team members, both in order to reaffirm membership in the team and to promote their views with other care providers, but also to deal with difficulties regarding, for example, lack of unity in outlook. The conclusion was also drawn that, in addition to the individual consequences, one outcome of the perceived difficulties was that they caused limitations of the use of collaborative resources to arrive at a holistic view of the patient’s problems. Thus the patients could not be met in the desired manner. The practical implications of the research project concern the development of teams in which various forms of interprofessional learning can influence the continued development of the team and the management of health care in regard to the importance of implementation processes and organisational learning. / Stora förväntningar ställs på att samarbete mellan yrkesgrupper och mellan sektorer ska utveckla hälso- och sjukvården och leda till en förbättrad folkhälsa. I Världshälsoorganisationens policydokument “Health21” anges exempelvis målsättningen att hälsoprofessionerna i de europeiska medlemsländerna till år 2010 ska ha utvecklat en hälsofrämjande kompetens som bland annat innefattar teamarbete och samarbete på basis av ömsesidig respekt för de olika professionernas expertis. Det interprofessionella teamets utmaningar är dock mångfacetterade och kräver uppmärksamhet från det samhälle som skapar villkoren för hälsoprofessionernas samarbete inom hälso- och sjukvårdens organisationer. Denna licentiatavhandling innehåller diskurs- och innehållsanalytiska studier om interprofessionellt teamarbete i vården. Avhandlingens övergripandet syfte var att undersöka och beskriva hur teammedlemmar konstruerar och skapar innebörder av team och teamarbete mellan flera hälsoprofessioner. Det ena specifika syftet var att undersöka hur medlemmar i multiprofessionella vårdteam talar om sitt team, särskilt avseende de diskursiva mönster som framträdde och vilken funktion dessa mönster hade (studie I). Det andra specifika syftet var att identifiera och beskriva svårigheter som hälsoprofessioner har uppfattat vid interprofessionellt teamarbete, där avsikten även var att möjliggöra en diskussion om implikationer för interprofessionellt lärande (studie II). Fokusgruppintervjuer med teammedlemmar (n=32) från sex team analyserades utifrån en diskursiv socialpsykologisk forskningsansats och fokuserade på användningen av pronomina ”jag”, ”vi” och ”de”. Fynden relaterades sedan till teorier om diskursivt medlemskap och diskursiva samhällen (studie I). Individuella semistrukturerade intervjuer med teammedlemmar (n=18) från fyra av de sex teamen genomfördes med critical incident-teknik. Intervjuerna analyserades via latent kvalitativ innehållsanalys och fynden tolkades utifrån teorier om professionssociologi och lärande i arbetet (studie II). Resultaten visade att två diskursiva mönster framträdde i teammedlemmarnas konstruktioner av ”vi-som-team”. Dessa mönster benämndes kunskapssynergi och tillitsfullt stöd (studie I). Vid individuella intervjuer med teammedlemmar identifierades följande tre teman som rörde svårigheter vid interprofessionellt teamarbete; (i) svårigheter som gällde den teamdynamik som uppstod när teammedlemmarna agerade som företrädare för sina professioner i relation till teamet, (ii) svårigheter när medlemmarnas olika kunskapsbidrag interagerade i teamet och (iii) svårigheter som rörde den omgivande organisationens påverkan på teamet (studie II). Konklusionen gjordes att de diskursiva mönstren utgjorde retoriska resurser för teammedlemmarna, både för att bekräfta medlemskapet i teamet, för att hävda sina åsikter i kontakter med andra vårdgivare (”de andra”) och även för att hantera uppfattade svårigheter beträffande exempelvis bristande samsyn. Vidare drogs slutsatsen att en konsekvens av de uppfattade svårigheterna var, förutom individuella konsekvenser, begränsningar i användandet av de gemensamma resurserna för att nå en helhetssyn på patientens problem och att patienterna inte kunde bemötas på det sätt som önskades. Forskningsprojektets praktiska implikationer rörde teamutveckling där olika former av interprofessionellt lärande påverkar teamets fortsatta utveckling, samt ledning av hälso- och sjukvården avseende betydelsen av imple-menteringsprocesser och organisatoriskt lärande.

Interprofessional education (IPE) is essential for enhancing students’ critical thinking skills and ability to integrate other professionals’ knowledge to ensure mutual respect and shared values for patient-centered care. The needs of medically underserved populations (MUPs) to receive behavioral health and nutritional care integrated with primary care services are significant. This research highlights the data outcomes from six offerings of a graduate IPE course on integrated health care. Funding from a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Behavioral Health Workforce and Education Training (BHWET) grant provided stipends for graduate social work and school counseling students in their final year of field working with MUPs in integrated care settings. Findings indicate significant increases in integrated care knowledge from pre- to post-course. Students reported appreciating the social justice framework of the course including food security and access to care. Students suggest that the course be required of all, not just stipend recipients. This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program Grant No. M01HP313900100. This information or content and conclusions are those of the authors and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government.

Background. A 2012 IOM report is just one of an increasing number of recommendations to incorporate a population health approach into training of all health professionals. In light of the emphasis on and necessity for all future health professionals to possess core public health competences, a medium sized public University incorporated Introduction to Public Health as a required course in their undergraduate, interprofessional Health Sciences curriculum. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to assess the change in core public health competencies of undergraduate Health Sciences students who completed an Introduction to Public Health course. Methods. The Tier 1 Public Health Professionals Competency Assessment was administered in the online Introduction to Public Health courses for undergraduate Health Sciences students; the pretest was administered during the first week and the posttest during the final week of the 15 week course. Purposive sampling was used to assess how the course increased the student’s acquisition of core public health competencies within the designated eight domains. Results. Results of this study showed an increase in the competency scores of the participants from pre to posttest across all of the eight domains. Conclusions. This study demonstrates that an Introduction to Public Health course can increase the core public health competencies of undergraduate Health Sciences students, and the Public Health Professionals Competency Assessment can be used to assess the acquisition of these competencies with and guide curriculum for future health care providers.

Incorporating interprofessional collaboration competencies into both undergraduate pre-licensure and graduate health science students poses challenges for academic health science centers. Certain student groups may have less opportunity to participate in interprofessional learning experiences due to demands of individual programs of study and conflicts in scheduling time with other disciplines. A group of interprofessional higher education faculty members created an innovative online asynchronous interprofessional experience with the primary goals of meeting accreditation standards for specific programs and providing interprofessional education (IPE) to students who were unable to participate in traditional face-to-face IPE experiences already established at the institution. This guide will highlight the process of design and development of the learning opportunity, from conception to implementation. The pilot of the asynchronous online IPE experience served as a model for the transition of the original in-person model to virtual IPE during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The stigma of mental illness endorsed by healthcare professionals has been linked to adverse outcomes. This issue underscores the need for early anti-stigma interventions in the context of professional training. The present study measured stigma change and suicide screening behaviors among medical, nursing, and pharmacy students enrolled in an interprofessional Communication Skills for Healthcare Professionals course. The Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS; Evans-Lacko et al., 2010), Opening Minds Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC; Modgill, Patten, Knaak, Kassam, & Szeto, 2014), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale Form C (M-C SDS Form C; Reynolds, 1982) was administered at baseline (T1), a mid-semester assessment (T2), and post-intervention (T3) to 176 students. Post-intervention changes in stigma components (knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intent) were mixed for all groups. Knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intent did not predict whether students screened for suicidal ideation (p > .05). Findings from the present study support past research indicating that the stigma can be improved with appropriate intervention. Findings also support interprofessional training as an appropriate context for anti-stigma interventions. Currently, there is no general consensus regarding the best method and combination of tools to measure stigma among healthcare students. Additionally, the relationship between stigma and screening for suicidal ideation is an important area for further scientific inquiry.