Inter-professional Education: the Way Forward

Abstract

Preceding chapters in this book provide examples of interprofessional education. Inter-professional initiatives have been increasing over the past five years. This increase in inter-professional initiatives has been in response to increasing calls from successive governments for health and social care professionals to work more closely together for the benefit of the users of health and social care services. The importance of an interprofessional approach to health and social care is emphasised in which all the professionals who contribute to the care of a user work not just alongside each other but also inter-professionally, as a team. The aim is to provide a ‘seamless service’ for users. This means that they can move between hospital and community without gaps or stumbling blocks in communication about their needs; that the different people caring for them, whether in hospital or at home, are well informed about what other carers’ interventions have been; and that there is an agreed plan for their future care. However, whilst moves towards integrated programmes for health and social care professionals are undoubtedly in evidence, the objectives are often not always made explicit (see Chapters 1 and 2).