12 tips for developing inter-professional education (IPE) in healthcare

Abstract

As healthcare increases in complexity there is growing awareness that interprofessional teamwork underpins safe and effective care delivery. However, in order to collaborate in interprofessional teams, health professionals must also train in them. Despite increasing interest in IPE amongst healthcare educators, and positive comments from students, barriers to its implementation remain. The authors of this article come from different healthcare professions and have overcome the challenges of developing IPE to devise several successful activities. This article outlines the educational benefits of IPE and provides guidance for surmounting obstacles to its implementation, supported by examples from our own experience.

Interprofessional Education in Health training in Brazil: Scoping Review

“…These experiences can stimulate academic protagonism in the way of thinking and doing health work 50 , in line with the DCNs of health courses, by promoting the sharing of knowledge, comprehensive care, understanding of the participation and the autonomy of its users 49 . Interprofessional practice also leads the students to develop a critical sense to make joint decisions with the team 50 .…”

“…Interprofessional learning in the practice setting requires the interaction between knowledge, the environment, real-world experiences, individual skills and social intervention initiatives to promote an active and experiential learning about work in the health area 49,50 . These experiences can stimulate academic protagonism in the way of thinking and doing health work 50 , in line with the DCNs of health courses, by promoting the sharing of knowledge, comprehensive care, understanding of the participation and the autonomy of its users 49 . Interprofessional practice also leads the students to develop a critical sense to make joint decisions with the team 50 .…”

Medical and pharmacy students’ perspectives of remote synchronous interprofessional education sessions

“…Pre-registration IPE is a powerful tool to prepare healthcare professionals for the expectations of working in a multi-disciplinary team and to maximise patient care [ 25 , 26 ]. The choice of prescribing as the theme for this IPE session was derived from the fact that the topic is shared and collaborative between these professions in the real world [ 27 ]. The findings of this research have suggested that medical students, as compared to pharmacy students, felt the session provided them with a better understanding of pharmacists’ roles in prescribing in primary care.…”

Practical Opportunities for Biopsychosocial Education Through Strategic Interprofessional Experiences in Integrated Primary Care

“…Strategic planning is necessary to optimize the interprofessional educational yield of these team-based care activities, as social learning theory suggests the activities need to not only include observation/modeling, but also attend to cognitive processes (i.e., motivation, attention, retainment, and reproduction) to maximize learning ( 14 ). The topic of the team-based care activity needs to be relevant and meaningful for all team members involved to help motivate learning ( 22 ). The specific educational objectives should be identified ahead of time.…”

“…In addition, the team-based activity needs to ensure interactive learning can take place through either observation and/or simulation. The team-based activity also needs to go beyond shared learning or working in tandem to engage providers in interprofessional collaboration for informal and experiential learning to take place ( 22 ) while simultaneously attending to interprofessional team processes, such as role clarity and communication. Therefore, specific strategies to encourage the team to attend to the material one another are sharing and work together toward shared objectives are key.…”