Because of this, the patient's illness and/or the nurse's professional speciality have provided the focus of research attention.
Additional file 2 shows the knowledge, attitudes and practices related to FGM according to professional group and speciality.
This transformation is based on converting the current diseasecentred model which is fragmented into different levels, to a more patient-centred integrated and territorial care model that promotes the use of a shared network of the different specialities, the professionals, resources and levels of care, entering into territorial agreements and pacts which stipulate joint goals or objectives.
These professionals could have background specialities in internal medicine, paediatrics, surgery and anaesthesiology.
This is why we have proposed for our region the addition to the traditional trinity of EC functions ethics education, case consultation, and policy work the promotion of research into the ethical issues faced by health care professionals in their different specialities within the EC's working area.
Ten healthcare professionals thought that speciality was irrelevant: knowledge and good communication skills were more important.
Previous studies have explored the instructional techniques used to teach anatomy and evaluated the anatomical knowledge of different medical speciality professionals [ 4], of course directors of medical schools in the USA [ 16] and students of physiotherapy [ 17– 19], nursing [ 18, 20], and medicine [ 7, 19].
The research team is composed of a clinical assistance group of 169 general practitioners and nurses, and a technical group of 22 health professionals including doctors of different specialities, nurses and pharmacists.
Frequently reported characteristics were age and gender, but also reported were: workplace location (hospital, GP, community), setting (urban, rural), size (single handed, multiple partners) and individual characteristics e.g. speciality, affiliation with professional bodies or university, years since graduation.
Tables 2a and 2b show the information-giving roles by professional group comparing each individual speciality's view of their role with the view of their informational role held by the other team members.
Members of particular professional groups or clinical sub-specialities may have different attitudes towards research participation, and this may in turn influence the types of survivors who are permitted to be contacted and who subsequently participate in the study [ 32, 36].
