Module Summary
Interprofessional education (IPE) is a key concept relating to health care professionals’ ability to effectively work together. The significance of IPE is extremely high since collaboration and highly integrated teamwork are essential to patient safety and quality of care. When individuals of different professions learn together, the experience can change their attitudes, and reduce stereotypes between professions within the medical field. IPE is increasingly being recognized as a valuable tool of training health professionals to improve health care and patient outcomes.
Key areas covered
- Key definitions and attributes of IPE
- The importance of IPE in healthcare
- Key studies of IPE in healthcare settings
- Model and contrary cases of IPE in practice
- Case studies of real-world examples of IPE being implemented in healthcare contexts
Learning outcomes
- Possess a clear understanding of IPE and its importance to the delivery of healthcare.
- Understanding of collaborative practice competencies within the context of Interprofessional Teams.
- Understanding the importance of active involvement (interactional); experiential learning and socialization process; anagogical experiences; collaborative patient-centred care.
Importance of module to healthcare delivery
In current healthcare systems across the world, patients are increasingly cared for by multidisciplinary teams involving a wide range of healthcare and other professionals. It is therefore vital that effective team-working, collaborations and communication exist across professional boundaries, ensuring high quality care that benefits patients. IPE between different professions is a means of achieving this type of collaboration.
Importance of module to individual healthcare professionals
Working in an interprofessional manner requires a specific set of skills which enable individual professionals to rise to the challenges that they will inevitably face when working with professionals outside their own discipline. Being able to identify the essential skills and best practices involved in working in IPE settings is essential knowledge for healthcare students to possess and it will help them to become effective collaborators and communicators when they eventually need to work in interprofessional settings.
