Interprofessional Placement Research Articles

An interprofessional role-emerging placement in HIV rehabilitation

People with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are living for longer with a variety of impairments and disabilities that are amenable to rehabilitation interventions. This article presents an interprofessional model of clinical education in which an occupational therapy student and a physiotherapy student worked together to develop an emerging role for their professions in the management of HIV in a community health centre. Students developed a consultation model that focused on self-management of HIV-related disability. Students were able to provide mutual support to each other as they designed a joint assessment process and educational materials for people living with HIV. This model of clinical education successfully integrated three innovative educational elements: a role-emerging placement, interprofessional education and HIV care. Careful planning and selection of students for this type of placement is essential for its success.

Preparing placement supervisors for primary care: an interprofessional perspective from the UK

All the professions working in primary care provide placements for students. How common, or how profession-specific, are the competency requirements of the different professions for their members who supervise students on placements? If there is a significant degree of commonality in these competency requirements, how feasible would it be to develop an integrated interprofessional development and support programme for placement educators? These were the main questions addressed in this research project. The requirements for placement educators of four professions in the UK – nursing, medicine, occupational therapy and social work – were analysed and classified. Categories identified included the skills of enabling learning, knowledge of the theory and principles of learning, the ability to manage the learning environment and the ability to impart a sense of professional responsibility, as well as up-to-date knowledge on professional practice and on the relevant curricula. We concluded that only the last of these was profession-specific. The potential to use this classification for the development of an interprofessional placement educator training and support programme was explored, and the potential benefits of using this area to promote interprofessional learning were discussed. Issues that need to be considered include gaining cross professional involvement, whether service providers or universities should run programmes, whether there should be one or several programmes, and accreditation. In order to explore and take action on these issues a working group with representatives of the four professions was set up in the Primary Care Trust.