The IPE Passport: An Innovative Model for Interprofessional Education
Purpose
To describe an innovative curriculum model of interprofessional education (IPE) designed to meet the need for collaborative care education and the IPE accreditation standards of seven health professions.
Methods/Description
The IPE Passport is a multi-step effort to prepare students enrolled in discipline-specific programs to participate in collaborative patient care. A 0.5 credit web-based course, Foundations in Collaborative Care, introduces students to the core competencies of interprofessional collaborative care, best practices in team-based care, and the identity and roles of IP team members. Following this foundational preparation, students participate in more advanced IPE coursework, simulations and authentic collaborative care experiences including interprofessional collaboration between students and practicing healthcare professionals. A combination of three of these varied learning experiences is needed to complete the IPE passport.
Results/Outcomes
The IPE Passport was initiated in the Fall 2015. To date, 841 students in EMS, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy and physical therapy have enrolled in the foundational course; dental student will enroll in the Summer 2016. Respondents to end-of-course evaluations reported value in learning the roles of different health professionals and good communication skills. Case studies and videos demonstrated the real-life value of the content. Passport-eligible learning experiences are available for students completing the course including electives such as Foundations in Patient Safety, engagement with the University’s community partners to provide interprofessional fall risk assessments, and the provision of a neuromusculoskeletal screen as a component of a general health screen during a University event, Project Homeless Connect. Work is underway to designate interprofessional learning experiences that occur during clinical education as passport-approved activities. The IPE Passport foundational course and learning experiences have allowed faculty to eliminate redundant coursework from the professional curriculum and integrate enhanced IPE learning experiences across the health science programs.
Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: The Pursuit of Excellence in Physical Therapy Education
Since Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice was released in 2011, specialized accrediting bodies have developed standards requiring IPE. Academic institutions have developed multiple approaches to meet the accreditation guidelines typically surrounding the pedagogies of clinical simulation, IPE courses, or service-learning. The IPE Passport model allows for a common course to introduce foundational concepts followed by varied learning experiences to meet profession-specific curriculum outcomes and specialized accreditation requirements. This model leverages existing resources and experiences with incentives to develop additional offerings. The design and implementation of the IPE Passport serves as a potential model to be replicated by other academic institutions looking to offer quality and diverse IPE.
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