［Purpose］An interprofessional healthcare student group developed and conducted a diabetes education program for diabetes patients. This study examined the effects of this experience on their recognition of an interdisciplinary team approach to medicine. [Methods] Interviews were conducted involving 13 healthcare students after the interprofessional diabetes education program, and the obtained data were analyzed using the Steps for Coding and Theorization （SCAT）. ［Results］“（1） The relationships with patients”, “（2） understanding the specialty of their own and other professionals”, and “（3） awareness obtained by participating in IPE for the promotion of an interdisciplinary team approach to medicine” were extracted as major categories, and were regarded as important to provide an interdisciplinary team approach to medicine. Also,students’ involvement with patients involved 3 processes: 〈understanding patients〉, 〈responsibility for patients〉, and 〈intervention for patients〉, and the level of emphasis placed on each process varied according to the faculty. After the participation in interprofessional education （IPE）, medical, nursing/pharmaceutical, and dietetic students deepened their understanding of: the roles of other professionals, those of their own and other professionals, and their own specialty, respectively. ［Discussion］The content and duration of clinical training conducted at each faculty had affected the process of involvement with patients. Pre-program learning at each faculty is necessary for the identification of their own specialty, and the development of a relationship with other professionals requires the accumulation of interchange experiences, suggesting the need to establish a continuing IPE program.

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Objective: To develop a self-rated interprofessional work （IPW） competency scale for mid-career health, medical and welfare professionals engaged in interprofessional cooperation within hospitals. Methods: A questionnaire to evaluate IPW-related behaviors was developed and mailed to 594 mid-career health, medical and welfare professionals at 394 hospitals in A Prefecture who had previously provided support involving interprofessional cooperation.Responses from 411 participants at 52 hospitals were analyzed. Questionnaire items were analyzed to investigate whether certain items should be excluded from the scale, and factor analysis was performed to confirm the factor structure and determine its appropriateness.To investigate the influence of attributes, chi-square testing was performed on each item using the variables of job position, years of experience in current occupation, and age. The relationship between each factor and job position was assessed using a t-test, and the relationships between each factor and years of experience and age were assessed using single-factor analysis of variance.Two-factor analysis of variance was also performed using job position and years of experience as the independent variables and each factor as the dependent variable. Results: Six factors were identified.A ceiling effect was observed in 11 items and subjected to repeat factor analysis to exclude them. The analysis identified four interpretable factors. The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 26-item scale had a high goodness-of-fit index. In terms of attributes, the results suggested that non-managerial professionals were more engaged in IPW-related behaviors than their managerial counterparts. There were no significant differences according to job position, years of experience, and age. Conclusion: This scale was determined to have sufficient internal consistency and item discrimination. Furthermore, the four-factor, 26-item scale was considered valid for use with mid-career professionals. Correlations between individual attributes and IPW competency and the wording of the questions will need to be considered in the future.

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This study aimed to identify work practice factors that relate with inter-professional relational coordination among home visiting nurses. Nurses worked at all home-visit nursing agencies of Chiba prefecture was subjected to anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey. Inter-professional relational coordination was measured with the Japanese version of Relational Coordination Scale （J-RCS）. Nurses rated J-RCS items about coordination with home doctors/ care managers/ home care workers/ visiting therapists/ day service and day care professionals/ visiting bath professionals/ short stay professionals in providing nursing care for primary patients during current three months. These score were calculated by that the denominator was the number of involved professions and the numerator was the sum of the J-RCS score about involved professions. In analysis, 74 nurses' in 14 agencies data were used. The author conducted random intercept model of multilevel regression analysis for agency level. J-RCS score was the dependent variable, work practice factors were the independent variables, and nurses' and agencies' characteristics were the adjusted variables. When agencies determined a number, date, and nurses in charge for home visits, nurses more coordinated with the other home healthcare professions.

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Objectives: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a rubric assessment to grade practice reports for interprofessional cooperation. Method: Sixty-nine second grade students from the Department of Physical Therapy were selected for this study. We graded two practice reports using a rubric assessment in experiments on exercise therapy. The rubric assessment was developed by twelve sub-items, grading each item on a scale of 1-5 points. Each report was graded by teachers and students and a two-way analysis of variance and simple main effects was carried out. Results: The total score and ten sub-items showed a significant interaction. Nine sub-items graded by teachers showed significant improvement in the later reports. All sub-items in the former reports and seven sub-items in the later reports graded by students as self-score were significantly higher than those graded by teachers. Conclusions: The instruction of report using a rubric assessment can bring constant learning effect for interprofessional cooperation. However, there were differences between grading by teachers and by students themselves as self-score. When using a rubric assessment, it was suggested that there was a need to promote clear understanding of the entire content as well as of the rubric assessment to enhance a learning effect.

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We report on the activities of the nutritional support team （NST） at our hospital since 2000. The first step was the initiation of nutritional support for postoperative patients after gastrointestinal surgery. In 2002, nutritional support was made available for all inpatients in our hospital by using the Potluck Party Method （PPM） and a weekly NST was started. Subsequently, a special NST round for patients hospitalized in the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery and an NST round for patients hospitalized in the department of gastrointestinal and general surgery were added in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Moreover, joint actions with the foot care team and the palliative care team were started in 2014 and 2015, respectively. As educational activities, monthly nutritional training sessions have been held in the hospital since 2007 and acceptance of NST trainees from outside the hospital has been initiated. For the future of the NST, it is important to act in close cooperation with other medical teams when providing nutritional therapy and care. Therefore, the NST should be developed as a highly specialized medical team by improving the knowledge of each team member.

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