title: How health professionals conceive and construct interprofessional practice in rural settings: a qualitative study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although interprofessional practice (IPP) offers the potential to enhance rural health services and provide support to rural clinicians, IPP may itself be problematic due to workforce limitations and service fragmentation. Differing socioeconomic and geographic characteristics of rural communities means that the way that IPP occurs in rural contexts will necessarily differ from that occurring in metropolitan contexts. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors contributing to effective IPP in rural contexts, to examine how IPP happens and to identify barriers and enablers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using Realistic Evaluation as a framework, semi-structured interviews were conducted with health professionals in a range of rural healthcare contexts in NSW, Australia. Independent thematic analysis was undertaken by individual research team members, which was then integrated through consensus to achieve a qualitative description of rural IPP practice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was clear evidence of diversity and complexity associated with IPP in the rural settings that was supported by descriptions of collaborative integrated practice. There were instances where IPP doesn't and could happen. There were a number of characteristics identified that significantly impacted on IPP including the presence of a shared philosophical position and valuing of IPP and recognition of the benefits, funding to support IPP, pivotal roles, proximity and workforce resources.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The nature of IPP in rural contexts is diverse and determined by a number of critical factors. This study goes some of the way towards unravelling the complexity of IPP in rural contexts, highlighting the strong motivating factors that drive IPP. However, it has also identified significant structural and relational barriers related to workload, workforce, entrenched hierarchies and ways of working and service fragmentation. Further research is required to explicate the mechanisms that drive successful IPP across a range of diverse rural contexts in order to inform the implementation of robust flexible strategies that will support sustainable models of rural IPP.
authors.affiliation: School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia. vparker3@une.edu.au.
authors.forename: Vicki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McNeil
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Higgins
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Penelope
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Paliadelis
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giles
authors.forename: Glenda
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Parmenter
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009517:New South Wales; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D011331:Private Practice / Q000458:organization & administration; D036301:Qualitative Research; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D000078329:Workforce