The Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (Toronto Rehab) is a current leader in the movement of interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives in Ontario, Canada. Nine students from seven different health care disciplines, including medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, social work, and speech language pathology participated in the second IPE clinical placement in the winter of 2005 on Toronto Rehab's Stroke inpatient unit. In an effort to increase interprofessional collaboration, improve communication skills, foster respect and enhance knowledge of the different roles each discipline plays on the health care team, these students met together over a five week period and participated in interprofessional group sessions led by different health care professional leaders from the unit. This paper discusses the students' perspectives on this IPE experience and the corresponding benefits and challenges. All participants in the study recognized the importance of interprofessional teamwork in patient care and agreed that all health care education should include opportunities enabling them to develop the skills, behaviours and attitudes needed for interprofessional collaboration.

In this article, the use of a scoring rubric for use in clinical supervision is discussed. The rubric is defined, a brief example is provided, and guidelines for development are included.

Nurses in Canada face diverse challenges to their ongoing educational pursuits. As a result, they have been early adopters of courses and programs based on distance education principles and, in particular, online learning models. In the study described in this paper, nurses studying at two northern universities, in programs involving online learning, were interviewed about their learning experiences and the impact of these experiences on their practice. The study led to insights into the factors affecting teaching and learning in distance settings; the complex work-life-study roles experienced by some nurses; life and work realities in northern settings; and the sustained importance of access enabled by online learning approaches. RésuméAu Canada, le personnel infirmier fait face à divers défis relatifs à l'éducation permanente. Les infirmiers et infirmières ont donc été parmi les premiers à adopter les cours et programmes appuyant les principes de l'éducation à distance et, en particulier, les modèles d'apprentissage en ligne. Dans l'étude que décrit cet article, le personnel infirmier étudiant dans deux universités du nord de l'Ontario, dans des programmes utilisant l'apprentissage en ligne, a été interviewé au sujet de ses expériences d'apprentissage et de l'incidence que celui-ci a eu sur la pratique des soins infirmiers. L'étude a permis de mieux comprendre les facteurs qui affectent l'enseignement et l'apprentissage à distance, les rôles complexes que jouent certains infirmiers et infirmières dans leur travail-vie-formation, les réalités de la vie et du travail dans les contextes nordiques et l'importance durable de l'accès que permettent les approches d'enseignement en ligne.

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