Interprofessional education and practice guide No. 4: Developing and sustaining interprofessional education at an academic health center

Abstract

Increasingly health professions schools and academic health centers are required to include interprofessional education (IPE) as a standard part of their core curricula to maintain accreditation. However, challenges continue to surface as faculty struggle to develop and participate in IPE activities while balancing increasing workloads and limited resources, and also trying to keep current in the changing profession-specific accreditation and standards. This guide shares lessons learned from developing and sustaining IPE activities at the University of Washington (UW) based in the United States. In 2008, the UW Schools of Nursing and Medicine were awarded funds to develop, implement, and evaluate an interprofessional program focused on team communication. This funding supported the creation of two annual large-scale IPE events, provided infrastructure support for the Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice (CHSIERP), and supported numerous interprofessional activities and initiatives in the health professions curricula. Our experiences over the years have yielded several key lessons that are important to consider in any IPE effort. In this guide we report on these lessons learned and provide pragmatic suggestions for designing and implementing IPE in order to maximize long-term success.

• Education
• faculty development
• interprofessional education
• interprofessional learning

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the writing and content of this article.

This work was supported by grants from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation and Department of Health and Human Services. The authors gratefully acknowledge the ANE Grant Team for all of their work in IPE.

Notes

1. For more information on Institute for Healthcare Improvement Open Schools see: http://www.ihi.org/education/ihiopenschool/Pages/default.aspx

2. Resources/toolkits, references and published manuscripts developed are available on the CHSIERP website. See: www.collaborate.uw.edu