Strengthening Interprofessional Collaboration in Europe: Mid-Term Results from TEAMCARE Pilot Programmes
Europe’s health and social care systems are facing unprecedented challenges. Population ageing, increasing prevalence of chronic conditions, workforce shortages, and growing expectations for integrated and person-centred care are transforming the way services are organised and delivered. In this evolving landscape, effective collaboration between health and social care professionals has become more important than ever.
The European project TEAMCARE, funded under the Erasmus+ programme, was created to address this challenge by developing an innovative EU Curriculum for Specialists in Community-Based Interprofessional Teams (CBITs). The project aims to equip health and social care professionals with the collaborative, communication, leadership, digital, and person-centred care competencies required to work effectively across disciplines and care settings.
To test and validate this approach, TEAMCARE is currently implementing pilot programmes in four European countries: Greece, Ireland, Italy, and Poland. The first phase of the pilot evaluation has now been completed, providing valuable insights from both students and teachers regarding the relevance, quality, and impact of the training.
While the pilots are still ongoing and final conclusions will only be available following the summative evaluation phase by September 2026, the mid-term findings already offer encouraging evidence of the potential of TEAMCARE to strengthen interprofessional collaboration across Europe.
Strong Participation Across Four European Countries
The first evaluation phase collected feedback from both students and teachers involved in the TEAMCARE pilots.
A total of 157 students and 17 teachers across the four Pilots participated in the evaluation process, representing response rates of approximately 77 % among students and 94 % among teachers.
Importantly, almost all participating students were actively employed health and social care professionals. This highlights the direct relevance of the programme to the current workforce and increases the likelihood that newly acquired knowledge and skills can be transferred directly into professional practice.
The participant profile reflected the multidisciplinary nature of contemporary health and social care systems. Students included doctors, nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychologists, physicians, dentists, dietitians, managers, and other health and social care professionals. Notably, the Greek pilot involved 13 physicians, demonstrating the programme’s ability to engage medical professionals alongside other disciplines.
