The Impact of Interprofessional Education and Curricular Design on Healthcare Participant Professional Integration

The landscape of healthcare is changing. All health providers in varying disciplines and roles must collaborate and function in teams for effective patient and care outcomes to take place. Collaborative practice starts in the academic environment through adoption of Interprofessional Education (IPE). Fostering IPE increases learner confidence and communication but requires a team-based approach to eliminate known learner barriers. These barriers include attitude toward collaboration, role delineation, team development and patient delivery and outcome. While IPE opportunities and activities can be looked at as unique, developing structured curricular standards can be applied to all IPE experiences. Healthcare Participants (HCP’s) (N=15) from two organizational settings participated in an online IPE experience using best practice IPE interventions and structured design formatting focusing on older adults. The course consisted of an online pre learning activity followed by one online session to work as teams on case studies alongside mentorship guidance. The previously validated and reliable ICCAS and RIPLS survey tools were used to measure outcomes of readiness for IPE and professional development. Though no statistically significant changes were noted on the dependent variables, there was clinical significance found in professional development.