Cornelia Mahler

• Professor
• Head of Department at University of Tübingen

Elderly patients with chronic diseases often use several drugs (polypharmacy). The more drugs a patient uses, the greater the risk of medication errors. To ensure a safe medication process, healthcare professionals must have a high level of medication safety competence (MSC). Hence, instruments are needed to measure healthcare professionals’ MSC an...

Background Healthcare systems globally are confronted with a shortage of nurses. Various strategies to address this have been applied, including active recruitment of internationally qualified nurses. Nurse managers may have a central role in supporting workplace integration. This study aimed to explore how domestically qualified nurses and interna...

This chapter focuses on digital possibilities for knowledge transfer and exchange of knowledge related to interprofessional collaboration between medicine and nursing in Germany. In the project named “CCC-Integrativ” [CCC-Integrativ—Implementation of a cross-sectoral, interprofessional evidence-based counselling program on complementary and integra...

Complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH) is increasingly recognized as a valuable approach to empowering and activating cancer patients. Studies have shown that higher patient activation is positively associated with improved health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs. The CCC-Integrativ study aimed to assess the implementation of an eviden...

Introduction Integrative nursing interventions (INI) play a significant role in healthcare, particularly in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. Integrating evidence-based INI into healthcare aligns with global initiatives such as the WHO’s Decade of Healthy Aging 2020–2030. Many INI are low-threshold practices, empowering patients to...

Medical guidelines recommend actively addressing patients’ information needs regarding complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH). Within the CCC-Integrativ study, an interprofessional counseling program on CIH was developed and implemented at four comprehensive cancer centers (CCCs) in Germany. As part of the process evaluation, this study exa...

Purpose: The aim of this literature review was to identify and summarize aspects of the usability of rollators from the currently available research literature. Further objectives were the exploration of rollator requirements and the search for possible disciplinary differences in the consideration or elaboration of usability aspects. Materials and...

Background Many patients diagnosed with cancer use complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH) approaches to manage their cancer- and treatment-related symptoms and improve their well-being. Evidence suggests that counseling on CIH can improve health outcomes and decrease healthcare costs by increasing patient activation. This qualitative study...

Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention zählen zu den Kernaufgaben des Öffentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes (ÖGD), insbesondere der Gesundheitsämter. Kaum bekannt ist, in welchem Ausmaß die Gesundheitsämter Aktivitäten im Bereich Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention nicht-übertragbarer Erkrankungen (G&PnüE) während der COVID-...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention zählen zu den Kernaufgaben des Öffentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes. Von zentraler Bedeutung für ihre Wirksamkeit ist u. a. die Gesundheitskommunikation. Da sich das Internet zu einer wichtigen Quelle für Gesundheitsinformationen entwickelt hat und die Gesundheitsämter immer mehr im Inter...

Background This article focuses on a growing, global recognition of the importance of the field of interprofessional education for person-centered collaborative practice (IPECP) expressed through high-level policy and accreditation decisions/actions taking place in 5 countries. Policy decisions are used to motivate strategies related to IPECP that...

Introduction Interprofessional training wards (IPTW) aim to improve undergraduates' interprofessional collaborative practice of care. Little is known about the effects of the different team tasks on IPTW as measured by external assessment. In Heidelberg, Germany, four nursing and four medical undergraduates (= one cohort) care for up to six patient...

Patients receive healthcare from various healthcare providers such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and psychologists. Across time and space, realms of and relations between healthcare professions show many differences (e.g. the professional autonomy of registered nurses). Variation, e.g. in respect to vocational training, appro...

Background: Interprofessional training wards (IPTW) can contribute to the development of interprofessional competencies. In order to evaluate the acquisition of competencies, instruments are needed that record both team performance and individual competencies in the clinical teaching setting in third-party assessment. This paper describes the Inte...

Background Interprofessional training wards (IPTWs) seem to deliver good results in terms of development of interprofessional competencies. However, evidence of long-term effects of these training wards on learners’ competency development is lacking and little is known about retrospective evaluation of IPTWs. Therefore, this study aimed to explore...

Aim: Examine perceptions of nurses who obtained a recognised nursing qualification in Germany about the integration of internationally qualified nurses (IQN) in the German nursing workforce. Design: Qualitative interview study. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 21 state-qualified nurses who had graduated from a German nursing program we...

Zusammenfassung Beruflich Pflegende sind in allen Versorgungssettings und bei allen Zielgruppen mit Patient:innen konfrontiert, die an akuten und/oder chronischen Schmerzen leiden. Obwohl in nationalen und internationalen Leitlinien zu chronischen Schmerzen die Bedeutung nichtmedikamentöser Maßnahmen (beispielsweise Wärme- und Kälteanwendungen) und...

Background: Most individuals affected by cancer who are treated with certain chemotherapies suffer of CIPN. Therefore, there is a high patient and provider interest in complementary non-pharmacological therapies, but its evidence base has not yet been clearly pointed out in the context of CIPN. Methods: The results of a scoping review overviewing t...

Understanding of the processes associated with socialization into collaborative work plays an important role in interprofessional education and collaborative practice. In order to evaluate changes in socialization toward interprofessional collaborative practice a measure is needed that captures professional beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of indiv...

Background Conducting a process evaluation is essential to understand how health interventions work in different healthcare settings. Particularly in the case of complex interventions, it is important to find out whether the intervention could be carried out as planned and which factors had a beneficial or hindering effect on its implementation. Th...

Background Peer-led tutorials are widely used in medical education to promote practical skills acquisition and support faculty staff. Typically, student tutors are custom trained for this specific task. We investigated whether opening up an existing medical tutor qualification program to other degree programs is successful in terms of acceptance am...

Zusammenfassung Interprofessionelle Ausbildung hat im deutschsprachigen Raum an Relevanz gewonnen und interprofessionelle Ausbildungsstationen (IPSTA) können zum Erwerb interprofessioneller Kompetenzen und damit zu einer verbesserten Zusammenarbeit und Patient*innenversorgung beitragen. Neben dem Kompetenzerwerb sind allerdings auch die professione...

Background The increasing nursing shortages worldwide has focused attention on the need to find more effective ways to recruit and retain nurses. The aim of this study was to gain understanding of factors that keep German nurses in nursing and explore their perceptions of factors that contribute to nurses leaving or staying in the profession. Meth...

Zusammenfassung. Die Praxisbegleitung in primärqualifizierenden Pflegestudiengängen wird von Hochschullehrenden durchgeführt und dient dem Theorie-Praxis-Transfer. Gleichzeitig besteht die Herausforderung, dass die Praxisbegleitung eine Prüfungsleistung darstellt. Daher ist die Frage, wie die Praxisbe­gleitung im Pflegestudium aus didaktischer Sich...

Introduction According to international literature, patients with cancer wish to have information on complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH). Medical guidelines recommend actively approaching patients with cancer discussing potential benefits and risks of individual CIH methods. While some CIH methods, for example, acupuncture and yoga, have...

Background: Nurses working in oncology use a wide range of naturopathic interventions in their daily practice to alleviate symptoms and improve the quality of life of oncological patients. However, there is no external evidence for many of these interventions. Due to a lack of scientific studies in the field, the aim of the project described here...

Zusammenfassung Auch in Deutschland gibt es inzwischen immer mehr Pflegende, die einen berufsqualifizierenden Bachelorabschluss in der Tasche haben. Wie sich die Abschlüsse unterscheiden und was das für die Pflegepraxis langfristig bedeutet – hier ein Überblick.

Background The shortage of qualified nurses is a problem of growing concern in many countries. Recruitment of internationally trained nurses has been used to address this shortage, but successful integration in the workplace is complex and resource intensive. For effective recruitment and retention, it is important to identify why nurses migrate an...

The National Cancer Plan emphasises the importance of medical communication and calls for its integration into medical education and training. In this context, the Milestone Communication Approach meets the communicative challenges in dealing with lung cancer patients. Interprofessional tandems, consisting of doctors and nurses, conduct structured...

The challenge of measuring collaborative teamwork among interprofessional students has been reported in the literature. Emphasis in evaluating teamwork has been on socialization and attitudes towards wanting to work with others and not on other aspects of teamwork such as collaboration in teamwork. To date, while the Assessment of the Interprofessi...

Objective A collaborative team is necessary to help patients achieve their healthcare goals using complementary medicine. At present, healthcare professionals do not feel sufficiently qualified to provide this service. This study sought to identify competencies and teaching methods for interprofessional training on complementary and integrative med...

There is no disease-specific instrument to measure the quality of life of significant others of cancer patients in Germany. In this study, we evaluated the reliability and construct validity of a German version of the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer (CQOLC) in a sample of 212 caregivers of breast and gynaecologic cancer patients. The CQOLC w...

Complex learning strategies, like interprofessional training wards in which students work autonomously in interprofessional collaboration, can support the development of interprofessional competencies in terms of knowledge, abilities and attitudes. To assess the short-term and long-term effects of a three to five weeks placement on such an interpro...

Objectives Physicians and other health professionals like nurses, physiotherapists and midwives should be prepared to work in a patient-centred and team-based manner through appropriate interprofessional training. This includes consideration of patients´ preferences for complementary treatment methods, as well as reflection of one's own professiona...

Background: Despite increasing digitalisation the paper-based medication list remains one of the most important instruments for the documentation and exchange of medication-related information. However, even elderly patients with polypharmacy who are at high risk for medication errors and adverse drug events, frequently do not receive or use a com...

Traditional hierarchies and structures in healthcare, as well as traditional professional socialization practices, continue to create barriers to effective interprofessional collaboration. Nevertheless, some studies indicate that early socialization with other health professionals can build bridges and improve understanding of each other’s roles an...

Within the bachelor programme Interprofessional Health Care the seminar Theories of healthcare professions was developed to foster a deeper understanding not only of the own but also of the roles and responsibilities of the other healthcare professions. Second-year students from different healthcare professions participated in this mandatory semina...

Objectives: Patient-centered medication lists are a useful documentation method to support safe drug treatment, but they are still inconsistently used and are of varying quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of an information campaign on the prevalence and use of medication lists. Material and methods: We launched a populati...

The aim of the Complementary Nursing in Gynecologic Oncology study was to investigate the effects of a complex, nurse‐led, supportive care intervention using Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) on patients’ quality of life (QoL) and associated patient‐reported outcomes. In this prospective, pragmatic, bicentric, randomized controlled trial...

Successful interprofessional (IP) collaboration has great potential to improve healthcare delivery. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the attitudes towards IP collaboration in young health professionals who had not been exposed to IP learning activities. About one year after graduation from their vocational training, 387 graduates f...

Objective: Patient safety has high priority in health care. Since successful interprofessional collaboration is essential for patient safety, the topic should ideally be addressed interprofessionally in the curricula. The aim of the project was the development and implementation of an interprofessional teaching concept "patient safety" for medical...

Background: In primary care, patients play a crucial role in managing care processes and handling drug treatment. A decisive factor for success is their health literacy, and several interventions have been introduced to support patients in fulfilling their responsibility. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the influence of such an int...

Purpose: The significance of interprofessional education (IPE) for interprofessional collaboration (IPC) and thus optimal patient care is widely recognised. As a starting point for a needs-based IPE development, we conducted focus groups interviews with students of different health professions. We assessed experiences with IPE and IPC, ascertained...

Background To meet the patients’ needs and to provide adequate health care, students need to be prepared for interprofessional collaborative practice during their undergraduate education. On interprofessional training wards (IPTW) undergraduates of various health care professions potentially develop a mutual understanding and improve their interpro...

An emerging challenge for educators of the health professions in undergraduate programmes is appropriately and adequately preparing students for the complexity they will encounter in practice. New graduate health professionals report increasing challenges transitioning to practice in contemporary health care environments due to the complexity encou...

Introduction: The need to be able to assess collaborative practice in health care teams has been recognized in response to the direction for team-based care in a number of policy documents. The purpose of this study is to report on further refinement of such a measurement instrument, the Assessment of Interprofessional Team Collaboration Scale (AI...

Background: Deficits in care and impaired patient-safety have been linked to inefficient interprofessional collaborative practice. Interprofessional training wards (IPTW) are an interprofessional educational intervention which aim to enable students and trainees from different health professions to work self-responsibly in order to manage the medic...

Attachment 1: A. Interprofessional learning objectives (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm; Rene Ballnus). B. Interprofessional Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs).

Attachment 4: Responsibility, Approval, Support, Consultation, Information (RASCI) scheme of HIPSTA. *see Gantt-chart (see Attachment 3). AfG: Akademie für Gesundheitsberufe Heidelberg. IPE: interprofessional education.

Background: Information technology tools such as shared patient-centered, Web-based medication platforms hold promise to support safe medication use by strengthening patient participation, enhancing patients' knowledge, helping patients to improve self-management of their medications, and improving communication on medications among patients and h...

Background Interprofessional education is receiving increased attention worldwide. This has led to the development of a bachelor programme “Interprofessional Health Care” at the University of Heidelberg, Germany beginning in the winter semester 2011. Aim of this study was to evaluate the students’ perception of this innovative programme regarding i...

Design: This study focused on a cross sectional evaluation of a project where nurse practitioner led primary health care clinics were provided to residents living within subsidized housing units in a southwestern Ontario, Canadian city over a 10-month period of time. Question: The study focuses on assessing how gaining access to health care provide...

Background: High expectations about acupuncture might contribute to larger treatment effects (Prady et al., 2015). However, problems in the assessment are well known: 1) floor or ceiling effects lower variance; 2) expectation measures include general beliefs about complementary medicine; 3) construct validity of expectation measures remains unclear...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Seit Oktober 2016 haben in Deutschland gesetzlich versicherte Patienten, die mind. 3 Arzneimittel einnehmen, Anspruch auf die Erstellung und Aushändigung eines Medikationsplans. Es ist anzunehmen, dass die persönliche Einstellung eines Patienten zu einem Medikationsplan für dessen Nutzung und dessen Akzeptanz relevant is...

Purpose/Objectives: To answer how the planned intervention was performed in routine care, which factors supported or distracted from its implementation, and how key organizational structures have been built and sustained. Research Approach: Mixed-methods process evaluation. Setting: Two German outpatient cancer clinics. Participants: Purposive samp...

Background: More and more institutions worldwide and in German-speaking countries are developing and establishing interprofessional seminars in undergraduate education of health professions. In order to evaluate the different didactic approaches and different outcomes regarding the anticipated interprofessional competencies, it is necessary to appl...

Background Job satisfaction in health care is currently important in view of workforce shortage in the health care area. The purpose of this study was to evaluate job satisfaction in young health professionals and to identify factors possibly influencing overall job satisfaction. Methods About one year after graduating from vocational training, a t...

A novel peer-led communication seminar for medical students and for students of the Interprofessional Health Care B.Sc. degree programme at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg is currently being developed to address the increasing need for interprofessional collaborative competencies in health care professionals. The core elements of this course incl...

Background Implementation science in healthcare is an evolving discipline in German-speaking countries. In 2015, the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, implemented a two-year full-time Master of Science program Health Services Research and Implementation Science. The curriculum introduces implementation science in the context...

Purpose The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the challenges and strategies of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) regarding daily management of their medication regimen focusing on the role of their support networks. Methods A purposeful sample of 25 patients with T2DM was recruited from local self-help groups, genera...

Im Jahr 2013 wurden die nach der Modellklausel eingerichteten akademischen Ausbildungswege im Bereich der Physiotherapie evaluiert. Der akademischen Ausbildung wird hierbei ein hoher Theoriebezug, der grundständigen ein hoher Praxisbezug zugesprochen. Bislang liegen kaum Daten vor, inwieweit die derzeitige Physiotherapie-Ausbildung aus Sicht der Be...

The ability of health professionals to collaborate effectively has significant potential impact on patient safety and quality-care outcomes, especially given the increasingly complex and dynamic clinical practice environments of today. Educators of the health professions are faced with an immediate challenge to adapt curricula and traditional teach...

The implementation of a bachelor degree in Interprofessional Health Care at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, has fostered the need to evaluate the impact of this innovative programme. The University of the West of England Interprofessional Questionnaire (UWE-IP) was developed for longitudinal evaluation of an interprofessional curriculum. The...

Background: Patients, and especially oncology patients, increasingly demand information and application of complementary therapies to supplement their conventional medical treatment and follow-up care. Due to the widespread interest in holistic treatment opportunities in oncology populations, healthcare professionals need to be prepared in differe...

Purpose/objectives: The purpose of this study was to develop a complex nursing intervention including complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for breast and gynecologic cancer patients during chemotherapy to improve quality of life. Methods: Data sources Theoretical framework and concepts, practical nursing knowledge, and evidence-based stu...

Over the past five years, the development of interprofessional education programmes has been gaining momentum in Germany fostering the need to evaluate these with appropriate instruments. Instead of developing a new instrument for evaluation purposes, the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) was chosen, as it is a widespread instr...

Introduction: This project report describes the development, “piloting” and evaluation of an interprofessional seminar on team communication bringing together medical students and Interprofessional Health Care B.Sc. students at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University, Germany. Project Description: A five-member interprofessional team collabora...

The terminology which has been used up until now within interprofessional healthcare has been characterised by a certain definitional weakness, which, among other factors, has been caused by an uncritical adoption of language conventions and a lack of theoretical reflection. However, as terminological clarity plays a significant role in the develop...

Background: Patients with multiple chronic conditions are at high risk for potentially avoidable hospitalizations, which may be reduced by care coordination and self-management support. Medical assistants are an increasingly available resource for patient care in primary care practices. Objective: To determine whether protocol-based care managem...

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is most adversely affected in cancer patients between diagnosis and the end of chemotherapy. The aim of the Complementary Nursing in Gynecologic Oncology (CONGO) study is to assess the effectiveness of a complex nursing care intervention of CAM to increase HRQoL in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. CONG...

Purpose This qualitative study in patients with type 2 diabetes and health care professionals (HCPs) aimed to investigate which factors they perceive to enhance or impede medication information provision in primary care. Similarities and differences in perspectives were explored. Methods Eight semistructured focus groups were conducted, four with...