Important steps for introducing interprofessional education into health professional education

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE) engages students from different healthcare professions for learning with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and quality of care. Recognizing the complexity of designing and integrating IPE into different health curricula, this review describes twelve strategies for introducing IPE into pre-registration health professional education. We emphasize group responsibility among faculty and other stakeholders, clarity and unity of purpose expressed in outcomes informing inputs, and learning methods. This piece of work emphasizes facilitation as the key to effective interprofessional teaching and learning, with implications for the preparation of faculty and students. The supporting evidence from the literature has also shown that interprofessional student assessment and programme evaluation play key roles in the successful functioning of IPE courses.