Physician perspectives on collaborative working relationships with team-based hospital pharmacists in the inpatient medicine setting.

Objective: Collaborative care between physicians and pharmacists has the potential to improve the process of care and patient outcomes. Our objective was to determine whether team-based pharmacist care was associated with higher physician-rated collaborative working relationship scores than usual ward-based pharmacist care at the end of the COLLABORATE study, a 1 year, multicentre, controlled clinical trial, which associated pharmacist intervention with improved medication use and reduced hospital readmission rates.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of all team-based and usual care physicians (attending physicians and medical residents) who worked on the participating clinical teaching unit or primary healthcare teams during the study period.

Undergraduate nursing student self-efficacy in patient education in a context-based learning program.

Educating patients is one recognized strategy to reduce health risks and costs associated with illness and hospitalization. Context-based learning (CBL) has been advocated in nursing education due to its identified advantages, such as students' increased self-confidence. The aim of this comparative, quasi-experimental study was to examine the influence of CBL on undergraduate nursing student self-efficacy in patient education.

Collaboration between pharmacists, physicians and nurse practitioners: a qualitative investigation of working relationships in the inpatient medical setting.

While collaborative, team-based care has the potential to improve medication use and reduce adverse drug events and cost, less attention is paid to understanding the processes of well functioning teams. This paper presents the findings from key informant interviews and reflective journaling from pharmacists, physicians and nurse practitioners participating in a multicentre, controlled clinical trial of team-based pharmacist care in hospitalized medical patients. A phenomenological approach guided the data analysis and content analysis was the primary tool for unitizing, categorizing and identifying emerging themes.

Occupational therapy students' and graduates' satisfaction with professional education and preparedness for practice.

Background: Occupational therapy students' and graduates'perceptions of their professional education have received limited attention.

Purpose: This paper presents the perspectives of occupational therapy students and graduates regarding satisfaction with their professional education and preparedness for practice.

Methods: Students and graduates provided feedback as part of an occupational therapy educational program evaluation at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Online learning: the potential for occupational therapy education.

Online learning continues to have a significant impact on higher education. Increasingly students seek a combination of online learning and face-to-face instruction at undergraduate and graduate levels and occupational therapists ask for online continuing professional development opportunities. However, occupational therapy educators have been slow to adopt web-based instructional technology.

Therapists' perspectives on the management and delivery of occupational therapy and physical therapy services.

The impact of resructuring healthcare services on the day-to-day practice of occupational therapists and physical therapists was examined. Four main issues emerged: limited understanding of scopes of practice; absence of a rehabilitation perspective at decision-making tables; lack of a career ladder; and barriers to the maintenance and enhancement of professional competence. This article describes the reported impact of these issues on patient care specifically and on the healthcare system in general.

Classroom-based assessment: validation for the school AMPS.

The role of the occupational therapist working in the school system is to facilitate a student's task performance or ability to do purposeful and meaningful activities so that the student benefits from the educational experience. To fulfill this role, occupational therapists need assessments that address functional performance issues in the classroom and provide information for effective programming and consultation. The School Version of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (School AMPS) is an observational evaluation of functional skills in the classroom.

Inquiry-based learning: An instructional alternative for occupational therapy education.

An inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach was used as the model of instruction in one of three sections offered annually to large introductory occupational therapy classes in a Canadian university during 1994/5, 1995/6, 1996/7. Students' final grades in this pre-entry course form part of the grade point average on which admission to the BSc OT programme is based. The IBL model was employed to (1) increase the amount of student-directed learning, (2) increase the amount of independent problem-solving, (3) increase student-instructor interaction within the learning situation, and (4) reduce the number of in-class hours for students.