Interprofessional Education

Interprofessional education (IPE) can be described as the process in which different disciplines learn and work with, about and from each other to achieve the goal of collaborating to provide optimal patient care. IPE can be provided during the education of health care professionals, as graduate training, or as continuing education. Truly effective IPE encourages disciplines to invite collaboration and co-learning, while respecting the different education, training, skills and values of each discipline. It is not intended to create one skill set for multiple disciplines, but to help providers understand and respect their differences and utilize these different skills most effectively in patient care (McPherson, Headrick, & Moss, 2001).

The Institute of Medicine report Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality (IOM, 2003) recommended that schools of medicine, nursing and allied health graduate practitioners with the competencies of cooperation, collaboration, communication, and teamwork to provide care that is continuous and reliable. We (the ACT evolution group) have in addition to curriculum based on the ACGME competencies for graduate medical education and the AACN Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice, begun to develop an Interprofessional curriculum suitable for use in graduate medical education, graduate nursing education and with interprofessional groups of health care providers in continuing educational programs. We invite faculty who teach in interprofessional programs or courses to send their content for us to include in our curriculum collective interface.

McPherson K, Headrick L, Moss F. (2001). Working and learning together: good quality care depends on it, but how can we achieve it? Quality Health Care. 10(suppl 2):ii46–ii53.

Institute of Medicine. (2003). Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.