Towards a global partnership model in interprofessional education for cross-sector problem-solving.

OBJECTIVES: A partnership model in interprofessional education (IPE) is important in promoting a sense of global citizenship while preparing students for cross-sector problem-solving. However, the literature remains scant in providing useful guidance for the development of an IPE programme co-implemented by external partners. In this pioneering study, we describe the processes of forging global partnerships in co-implementing IPE and evaluate the programme in light of the preliminary data available. METHODS: This study is generally quantitative. We collected data from a total of 747 health and social care students from four higher education institutions. We utilized a descriptive narrative format and a quantitative design to present our experiences of running IPE with external partners and performed independent t-tests and analysis of variance to examine pretest and posttest mean differences in students' data. RESULTS: We identified factors in establishing a cross-institutional IPE programme. These factors include complementarity of expertise, mutual benefits, internet connectivity, interactivity of design, and time difference. We found significant pretest-posttest differences in students' readiness for interprofessional learning (teamwork and collaboration, positive professional identity, roles, and responsibilities). We also found a significant decrease in students' social interaction anxiety after the IPE simulation. CONCLUSIONS: The narrative of our experiences described in this manuscript could be considered by higher education institutions seeking to forge meaningful external partnerships in their effort to establish interprofessional global health education.

Continuity and changes in three types of caregiving and the risk of depression in later life: a 2-year prospective study.

Objective: previous studies have well documented the psychological consequences of family caregiving but less is known about the heterogeneity of older carers being affected during different temporal phases of caregiving over time. This study aimed to prospectively examine the impact of continuity and changes in grandchild care, parent care and spouse care on older carers' depressive symptoms 2 years later. Methods: the analytic sample contained 2,398 urban seniors who completed interviews for both the 2011 and 2013 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The generalized estimating equations approach estimated the longitudinal associations of caring transitions with depressive symptoms. Results: in comparison with non-carers, elders who continuously provided grandchild care, and those who stopped providing parent care reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms; those who entered into or exited from providing spousal care reported significantly more depressive symptoms. Conclusions: by separating the impact of caring transitions on subsequent depressive symptoms, our findings added evidence of the great diversity of caring experiences among older adults who provided care to grandchildren, parents or spouses. Our findings have implications for carer support programmes in targeting those older carers at higher risk of depression.