A critical realist model of complexity for interprofessional working

A very interesting paper written by Rick Hood, Bedford Hill, 

London

, United Kingdom

Royal Holloway University of London, Criminology and Sociology, 

Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey

, United Kingdom.

This paper presents a theoretical model of complexity for considering issues relevant to interprofessional working. The need for such a model is introduced with reference to the literature on collaboration and integration in health and social care, particularly in children’s services. It is argued that interprofessional working is often seen as a response to complexity, but that current models fail to build an appreciation of complex causality into their approach to addressing needs through targeted interventions. The alternative offered here is a critical realist model based on Bhaskar’s domains of reality, focusing on the implications of open systems, complex causality and contingency. These ideas are used to examine some of the issues and dilemmas typically encountered by interprofessional networks in coming together to work on complex cases.

For more information, please see: Journal of Interprofessional Care, Early online.

Focusing on future learning environments: Exploring the role of space and place for interprofessional education

Great editorial written by Jonas Nordquist, Simon Kitto, Jennifer Peller, Jan Ygge, Scott Reeves.


While space and place have been important units of analysis in studying learning across a number of social science domains (e.g. environmental studies), there has been little research exploring these elements in either the health professions education or the interprofessional education literature (Leander, Phillips & Taylor, 2010). This editorial highlights the importance of acknowledging and beginning to understand the role of space and place in interprofessional education. Specifically, our aim is to initiate a dialogue about how space, place and learning can affect the design and implementation of this type of education. We suggest that understanding the conceptual and practical relationship between space, place and learning is necessary to the construction and reconstruction of learning spaces that aspire to follow interprofessional education principles (e.g. student-centredness, flexibility, interactivity, collaboration and communication).


Many of the points raised in this editorial will be further discussed and debated in an upcoming conference, entitled, Future Learning Environments: How Space Impacts on Learning which will take place the Nobel Forum, KI in Stockholm, Sweden from June 3–5, 2012. This conference aims to gather an interprofessional and interdisciplinary group of academics, designers, architects, clinicians, managers and policymakers to explore key dimensions and issues related conceptualizing, evaluating and theorizing about the use of space, how it impacts on professional and interprofessional learning. Additional information about the conference can be found at: www.ki.se/learningspaces
For more information, please see: Journal of Interprofessional Care, November 2011, Vol. 25, No. 6 , Pages 391-393.

Continuing professional development for interprofessional teams supporting patients in healthcare decision making

Great article on interprofessional teams supporting patients in healthcare decision making   
Beth A. Lown, Jennifer Kryworuchko, Christiane Bieber, Dustin M. Lillie, Charles Kelly, Bettina Berger, and Andreas Loh.


Healthcare professionals and organizations, policy makers, and the public are calling for safe and effective care that is centered on patients’ needs, values, and preferences. The goals of interprofessional shared decision making and decision support are to help patients and professionals agree on choices that are effective, health promoting, realistic, and consonant with patients’ and professionals’ values and preferences. This requires collaboration among professionals and with patients and their family caregivers. Continuing professional development is urgently needed to help healthcare professionals acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to create and sustain a culture of collaboration. We describe a model that can be used to design, implement, and evaluate continuing education curricula in interprofessional shared decision making and decision support. This model aligns curricular goals, objectives, educational strategies, and evaluation instruments and strategies with desired learning and organizational outcomes. Educational leaders and researchers can institutionalize such curricula by linking them with quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.

For more information, please read: Journal of Interprofessional Care, November 2011, Vol. 25, No. 6 , Pages 401-408. 

Interprofessional education about patient decision support in specialty care

Interesting article by Mary C. Politi, Arwen H. Pieterse, Tracy Truant, Cornelia Borkhoff, Vikram Jha, Laura Kuhl, Jennifer Nicolai, and Claudia Goss.

Specialty care involves services provided by health professionals who focus on treating diseases affecting one body system. In contrast to primary care – aimed at providing continuous, comprehensive care – specialty care often involves intermittent episodes of care focused around specific medical conditions. In addition, it typically includes multiple providers who have unique areas of expertise that are important in supporting patients’ care. Interprofessional care involves multiple professionals from different disciplines collaborating to provide an integrated approach to patient care. For patients to experience continuity of care across interprofessional providers, providers need to communicate and maintain a shared sense of responsibility to their patients. In this article, we describe challenges inherent in providing interprofessional patient decision support in specialty care. We propose ways for providers to engage in interprofessional decision support and discuss promising approaches to teaching an interprofessional decision support to specialty care providers. Additional evaluation and empirical research are required before further recommendations can be made about education for interprofessional decision support in specialty care.

For more information, please read: Journal of Interprofessional Care, November 2011, Vol. 25, No. 6 , Pages 416-422.