The challenges of initiating a multi-professional clinical skills project

Health care professionals are required to work collaboratively to prevent fragmented care and improve the quality of the patient's journey. The drive for multi-professional and inter-professional education is aimed at nurturing collaboration by engaging in joint educational initiatives. Although many United Kingdom (UK) policy documents endorse multi-professional and inter-professional initiatives, few seek to address the significant challenges inherent within these ventures. This paper uses force field analysis to make explicit the challenges experienced by two National Health Service (NHS) organizations on the east coast of Scotland during the initiation phase of a multi-professional clinical skills project. An action research methodology is employed to highlight the strategies adopted by the project team. The authors suggest that gaining insight into the cultural, logistical and educational challenges inherent in such initiatives provides valuable data to plan appropriate strategies to aid project success.