Search results

The purpose of this review was to explore the literature for evidence of the impact of interprofessional practice models on health service inequity, particularly within community care settings for diverse ageing populations.

An integrative systematic literature review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework combined with the EndNote reference management system. Following the collection and comprehensive screening process completion, a thematic analysis of the included articles occurred utilising within NVivo 12 software.

The review found that there was a paucity of evidence related to the relationship between interprofessional practice models (IPM) and health service equity for ageing populations. There is a need to improve collaborative practices between social care, public health care and health service providers to more clearly define team member roles. Key aspirations included the need for future innovations in health service delivery to place health service equity as a goal for interprofessional practice. There is a need to find ways to measure and articulate the impact for vulnerable populations and communities.

The review offers insight into the need for health care delivery models to place health service equity at the centre of the model design. In practice settings, this includes setting interprofessional team goals around achieving equitable care outcomes for, and with, vulnerable populations. Implications for practice relate to improving how interprofessional teams work with communities to achieve health care equity.

There is a consensus across the literature that there continues to be health service inequity, yet IPE and interprofessional collaborative practice (IPC) have been growing in momentum for some time. Despite many statements that there is a link between interprofessional practice and improved health service equity and health outcomes, evidence for this is yet to be fully realised. This review highlights the urgent need to review the link between education and practice, and innovative health models of care that enable heath care professionals and social care providers to work together towards achieving health equity for ageing populations. It is clear that more evidence is required to establish evidence for best practice in interprofessional care that has the mitigation of health care inequity as a central objective.

The first consequence of the admonition (see page 34 quickly!) from the Persons of Wembley, that it is objectionable to seek to entertain or amuse you, is that I have spent 45 minutes of a bright Boxing‐Day morning wondering how the hell to begin this column. Then I reflect that the only effective cure for women's libbery is a happy sex‐life, and I raise a glass to the abolition of earnestness, to the defenestration of unisexuality, and to the abomination of wopersons in 1983. ‘Sexism’‐blathering dotties steer well clear of me this unfolding year!

As CD‐ROM becomes more and more a standard reference and technical support tool in all types of libraries, the annual review of this technology published in Computers in Libraries magazine increases in size and scope. This year, author Susan L. Adkins has prepared this exceptionally useful bibliography which she has cross‐referenced with a subject index.