'Re-placing' professional practice.

While preparation for professional practice is conceived as placeless, it is enacted in place. Consequently, many professionals find themselves working in conditions significantly different than those they were educated in and for. This is especially relevant for new professionals arriving in rural settings after preparation in urban programs, where metrocentric models of orientation to practice are implicitly privileged. The consequent dis-join between practice and place often results in new professionals feeling 'out of place' and questioning their professional competence. It also results in settings outside the metrocentric norm being viewed as less desirable practice contexts. Negative desirability hinders professional recruitment, while feeling out of place and incompetent hinders professional retention; both are longstanding issues in rural communities. Recent developments in professional education and practice standards emphasise adaptability to practise in specific contexts. However, 'context,' a primary focus to date for rural preparation is presented as a largely static backdrop that needs to be accommodated to engage in the 'real practice' one was trained for. Drawing on the spatial turn in social theory, we argue that place both shapes and is shaped by professionals and their practices and as such, must be engaged with deeply and dynamically. This conceptualisation of the relationship between place and practice has critical implications for professional preparation. As interdisciplinary practitioners and researchers working in diverse contexts, we examine 'place' from a social constructivist perspective as a focal point for professional preparation.

The times are changing: workforce planning, new health-care models and the need for interprofessional education in Australia.

Following a history of the Australian health system and funding models, we outline workforce issues, in particular, the lack of health professionals in regional locations. The role of the Australian government health departments in workforce planning is discussed. We describe research funded by the Commonwealth government focussing on the development of interprofessional education (IPE) for collaborative practice. New models of interprofessional care have been introduced to help tackle the population needs: in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT); HealthOne in New South Wales; health-care homes nationally; and partnerships between pharmacists and general practitioners in Victoria. Changes in care delivery necessitate innovations in health education, however how IPE is embedded in Australian health professional education still varies. There is a growing sense of an IPE community complemented by an interest in IPE from peak policy and workforce bodies. There are changes underway in health professional registration and accreditation that are likely to regulate shared and common learning to enable the continuous development of a flexible, responsive and sustainable health workforce. We conclude that there are significant opportunities for further development of IPE and collaborative practice as key strategies for adding to the ability of health systems to address individual needs in conjunction with aiming for optimal and universal health coverage.

Interprofessional health education in Australia: three research projects informing curriculum renewal and development.

PURPOSE: This paper reports on three interrelated Australian studies that provide a nationally coherent and evidence-informed approach to interprofessional education (IPE). Based on findings from previous studies that IPE tends to be marginalized in mainstream health curriculum, the three studies aspired to produce a range of resources that would guide the sustainable implementation of IPE across the Australian higher education sector. METHOD: Nine national universities, two peak industry bodies and a non-government organization constituted the study team. Data were gathered via a mixture of stakeholder consultations, surveys and interviews and analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. RESULTS & CONCLUSION: An important outcome was a curriculum renewal framework which has been used to explore the implications of the study's findings on Australian nursing. While the findings are pertinent to all health professions, nursing is well placed to take a leading role in establishing IPE as a central element of health professional education.

Competencies and frameworks in interprofessional education: a comparative analysis.

Health professionals need preparation and support to work in collaborative practice teams, a requirement brought about by an aging population and increases in chronic and complex diseases. Therefore, health professions education has seen the introduction of interprofessional education (IPE) competency frameworks to provide a common lens through which disciplines can understand, describe, and implement team-based practices. Whilst an admirable aim, often this has resulted in more confusion with the introduction of varying definitions about similar constructs, particularly in relation to what IPE actually means.The authors explore the nature of the terms competency and framework, while critically appraising the concept of competency frameworks and competency-based education. They distinguish between competencies for health professions that are profession specific, those that are generic, and those that may be achieved only through IPE. Four IPE frameworks are compared to consider their similarities and differences, which ultimately influence how IPE is implemented. They are the Interprofessional Capability Framework (United Kingdom), the National Interprofessional Competency Framework (Canada), the Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (United States), and the Curtin University Interprofessional Capability Framework (Australia).The authors highlight the need for further discussion about establishing a common language, strengthening ways in which academic environments work with practice environments, and improving the assessment of interprofessional competencies and teamwork, including the development of assessment tools for collaborative practice. They also argue that for IPE frameworks to be genuinely useful, they need to augment existing curricula by emphasizing outcomes that might be attained only through interprofessional activity.