Priorities, strategies, and accountability measures in interprofessional education.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this pilot study was to identify the priorities, strategies, and accountability measures for interprofessional education (IPE) being used by health professions programs, allied health colleges, and/or universities. METHOD: An electronic survey was sent to 114 deans, associate deans, and directors (program, clinical education, graduate studies) at six institutions with allied health programs, including three academic medical centers and three comprehensive public institutions. The survey consisted of basic demo- graphic questions and questions assessing knowledge of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) concepts of IPE, program-specific accreditation require- ments for IPE, and institutional priorities, strategies, and accountability measures for IPE activities. RESULTS: An overall response rate of 50% (57/114) was achieved with representation from a total of 34 different allied health programs. Chi-squared statistics showed statisti- cally significant differences (pTHE PRACTICE OF UTILIZING interprofessional educa- tion (IPE) among healthcare educators is growing both in consensus and expectation. It is no longer a matter of "if" we should implement IPE, rather it has become a question of "when." President Obama's FY2015 budget proposal to the United States Government requested $10 million to support clinical training programs to "increase the capacity of community-based primary health care teams to deliver quality care."1 Accrediting bodies are beginning to follow government expecta- tions by requiring health professions programs to incor- porate IPE in their educational processes as a require- ment for maintaining accreditation. Resultantly, health professions educators are being encouraged, and in some cases mandated, to incorporate IPE into already very full curricula.The first definitions of IPE were outlined by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) plenary session on " Edu- cating for the Health Team" in 1972, which established the nexus for team-based healthcare.2 Over the next four decades, the concept of IPE grew slowly in under- standing and necessity as well as a method of quality improvement for patient care. The 2003 IOM report, "Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality," established that educators and accreditation, licensure and certification organizations should ensure that stu- dents and working professionals develop and maintain proficiency in five core interprofessional practice areas: patient-centered care, interdisciplinary teams, evidence- based practice, quality improvement, and informatics.3 In turn, these core areas provided the impetus for the creation of an Interprofessional Education Collabora- tive Expert Panel (IPEC) in 2011. This panel identified four competency domains that reinforced the five core areas identified in the 2003 IOM report by further defining the interprofessional competencies:1) values/ethics for interprofessional practice,2) roles and responsibilities,3) interprofessional communication, and4) teams and teamwork.Within these competency domains are additional compe- tencies which serve as learning objectives and activities. …