Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the awareness among internship students regarding inter-professional education.

Objective: Questionnaire will be devised and administered to students of medical, dental and nursing in final year and internship training.

Background: Inter-professional education (IPE) is an important facet for health professionals because it will benefit them while working along with different professionals in their particular work areas. All health care professionals should be educated about inter-professional skills for better communication with other health professionals. Good communication and interaction skills will enhance the quality of treatment and will result in enhanced patient satisfaction.

Reason: Proper inter-professional education is of utmost importance for quality treatment and enhanced patient satisfaction. The main reason of this study is to instil awareness in internship students about inter-professional education and its benefits in their career.

The role and strength of primary health care (PHC) varies considerably between countries although it has been on the global health-policy agenda for almost three decades since the Conference of Alma-Ata in 1978. A rapid international overview suggests the hypothesis that state-run or tax-borne health system tend to face less difficulties to implement strong primary care compared to those where non-state actor play a more important or even predominant role. This paper aims at contributing to empirical evidence and system understanding of the underlying causes for countries’ difficulties to strengthen PHC. Germany is an example for a healthcare system with long tradition and universal coverage of quality health services that has not yet managed to strengthen PHC. For assessing the reasons why, the paper starts with a general overview of relevant features and the rather complex structure of stakeholders in the German healthcare system, including medical training. It follows an analysis of potential system obstacles on the way towards strengthening PHC and particularly towards reforming medical training in order to better prepare future physicians for general practice and rural health. Finally, the paper briefly presents an innovative approach launched by the medical faculty of Magdeburg for promoting the recruitment of rural health professionals and upcoming system obstacles.

Background: Interprofessional teamwork has become increasingly important to provide patient centered care. Physicians and nurses as two major professions are needed to be adequately qualified. Interprofessional Education (IPE) is an eligible approach. Nevertheless, there is a lack of the impact for both professions. Therefore, we implemented and evaluated simulation training and a collaborative working sequence on a training ward. The aim was to analyze the course structure and assess learning effects to evaluate the suitability for IPE.

Methods: A mixed methods study with a sequential explanatory design was conducted. A total of five medical and five nursing students were involved. Students completed questionnaire based interviews after IPE lectures. Two group discussions were conducted to specify and expand quantitative evaluation results. For descriptive statistics, we used the software package SPSS. Both group discussions were analyzed by a qualitative content analysis using the software MAXQDA.

Results: Students rated IPE predominantly positive. The learning contents broadness and the links between theory and practice. Students identified six core learning effects: (1) Realization of the importance for collaborative working; (2) Gaining knowledge about the roles of both professions; (3) Realization, that interprofessional care facilitates work; (4) Practicing communication between physicians and nurses; (5) Improving collaborative communication with the patient; and (6) Understanding chances and challenges of joint decision making. Nevertheless, students suggested improvements, e.g., the scenarios of the simulation training should be expanded.

Conclusion: The results provide clear evidence that IPE by simulation training and a training ward is feasible and well accepted by students in a German medical school. Results can be used to adapt IPE lectures and to implement them for a larger number of students. The next step is to generalize findings and to sustainably implement IPE in both curricula.

Textbooks are vital tools in the training of medical students. In Africa, there is a huge deficit in terms of literary medical works compared to the western world. Ultimately, this leaves the aspiring African clinician at the mercy of the western authors when it comes to acquiring knowledge about local health issues. The textbooks we use in teaching preclinical medical students in Africa are by foreign authors which fail to adequately capture the local content. Poor funding of biomedical research by governments of African countries has left the output of local authors dismally low. Reliance on foreign authors in writing our pre-clinical textbooks has left some disconnect between the pre-clinical and clinical stage of the medical training in African medical schools. Paying close attention towards bridging this gap by stimulating African biomedical researchers towards developing pre-clinical medical textbooks that reflect the African peculiarities; is of topmost importance The current pre-clinical textbooks used for training medical students will need to be re-written (to fully reflect local content) if the quest for high quality clinicians in the continent will be realized.