Auditing an organization's interprofessional learning and interprofessional practice: The interprofessional praxis audit framework (IPAF)

Abstract

Interprofessional learning (IPL) and interprofessional practice (IPP) are strategies for healthcare services' striving to improve patient care. While health professionals are enacting IPL and IPP, the capacity to understand and comprehensively map IPL and IPP activities has remained elusive. Additionally, understanding and accounting for the impact of organizational context and culture on IPL and IPP requires attention. This paper presents the “interprofessional praxis audit framework” (IPAF), which is a unique tool to address these two issues. The IPAF comprises five components: context, culture, conduct, attitudes and information. Conjoined, the components facilitate examination of an organization's enactment of IPL and IPP. Utilized within an action research methodology, the IPAF enables a synchronized inspection, whereby similarities and differences of the components are considered simultaneously, and the knowledge developed is used to promote change projects to improve patient care.

Keywords:

• Interprofessional learning
• interprofessional practice
• audit framework
• quality and safety
• interprofessional praxis audit framework (IPAF)

Acknowledgement

The research is supported under the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects funding scheme [project number LP0775514].

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.