Why medicine must catch up on interprofessional education for a safer NHS

A long line of reports into safety in the NHS, including most recently Donna Ockenden’s review of maternity services in Shrewsbury,1 have raised concerns about a lack of communication and “conflicting agendas” between healthcare staff. Although the challenges of team working are not specific to healthcare, this is a setting where the “effect of poor relationships and collaboration can have catastrophic long-term consequences,” Ockenden noted.

One oft cited solution is making better use of interprofessional education at the undergraduate level and beyond. As early as the 1970s the World Health Organization made the case that health professionals learning together would build a stronger workforce that could respond better to the needs of the population.2 Yet current medical students paint a varied picture of their experience: from a few tickbox exercises through to some noting that learning from and with other groups was the most useful thing they had done. And experts say that even more is needed to improve interprofessional education after graduation.