Two birds with one stone: Addressing interprofessional education aims and objectives in health profession curricula through interdisciplinary cultural competency training

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE) is acknowledged as important in producing health care profession graduates able to work collaboratively with colleagues from other health professions. There are, however, a range of obstacles to development of effective IPE programmes. Differing health professional cultures and socialisation processes have been identified as two potential barriers. This article notes considerable alignment between the broad aims and objectives of IPE and those of cultural competency training. It suggests that in the course of acquiring values, attitudes and skills consistent with a culturally competent practitioner, students may simultaneously develop a capacity to apply these same skills and attributes to their relationships with students (and future colleagues) from other health professions. This article draws on the concept of inerprofessional cultural competence (CC; Pecukonis, E., Doyle, O. & Bliss, D.L. (2008). Reducing barriers to interprofessional training: promoting interprofessional cultural competence. J Interprofessional Care, 22(4), 417–428), noting that interdisciplinary CC training delivered early in undergraduate years may be an effective vehicle for meeting IPE aims and objectives, and examining an example of this in practice. This article suggests that interdisciplinary programmes developed to jointly meet CC and IPE aims and objectives may provide a platform for fostering interprofessional tolerance, promoting shared values and discouraging the formation of interprofessional barriers as students are socialised into their professional cultures.