Multiprofessional working, interprofessional learning and primary care: a way forward?

Across all sectors of health and social care there is a growing need for collaboration between professionals, agencies, providers and above all with the people they seek to serve. The significant challenge is how to create, within the existing and future workforce, the capability to work in multi professional teams capable of effective collaboration. The intention of this paper is to explore the implications that multi- or more specifically inter-professional learning may have for collaboration within primary care.

Opportunities and barriers to successful learning transfer: impact of critical care skills training.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study to assess the impact on nursing practice of critical care skills training for ward-based nurses.

Background: Following a government review in the UK of adult critical care provision, new ways of working were advocated to ensure that critical care services depended on the needs of the patient, not their location in the hospital. A re-conceptualization beyond service provision in high dependency units and intensive care units was required in order to deliver an integrated service.

Will opposites attract? Similarities and differences in students' perceptions of the stereotype profiles of other health and social care professional groups.

The extent to which health and social care (HSC) students hold stereotypical views of other HSC professional groups is of great potential importance to team working in health care. This paper explores students' perceptions of different HSC professional groups at the beginning of their university programmes. Findings are presented from an analysis of baseline data collected as part of the New Generation Project longitudinal cohort study which is assessing the impact of interprofessional education over time on a range of variables including stereotyping.

Educating the future workforce: building the evidence about interprofessional learning.

This paper addresses the theme of interprofessional education for health and social care professionals as it affects the development of the workforce. The drivers for change in the UK, typified by the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Victoria Climbié inquiries and the response to these in the form of Department of Health policy, are discussed. The need for rapid development of the evidence base around this subject is evident from literature reviews of the impact of interprofessional education.

The road ahead.

THE PROVISION of health and social care is a labour intensive enterprise in which the workforce is the key to modernisation. It not only delivers services but also acts as the arbiter of its own quality.