The ideas of interprofessional education (IPE), interdisciplinary education (IDE) and collaborative practice have been around for many years. However, it has only been about the past 30 years when scholarly interest has heightened in the area of healthcare and a literature has emerged. The link below is an annotated bibliography for KEY resources across many disciplines that may help you explore or support your scholarly endeavors exploring IPE and IDE.

Barnsteiner, J., Disch, J., Hall, L., Mayer, D., & Moore, S. (2007). Promoting interprofessional education. Nursing Outlook, 55(3), 144–150.

Abstract

The work of the Institute of Medicine and others has clearly demonstrated that when healthcare professionals understand each other’s’ roles and are able to communicate and work effectively together, patients are more likely to receive safe, quality care. Currently, there are few opportunities to bring faculty and students in prelicensure programs from multiple disciplines together for the purpose of learning together about each other’s’ roles, and practicing collaboration and teamwork. Designing and implementing interprofessional education offerings is challenging. Course scheduling, faculty interest and expertise in interprofessional education (IPE), a culture of IPE among faculty and students, and institutional policies for sharing course credit among schools are just a few of the challenges. This article explores the concept of IPE, and how faculty in schools of nursing might take the lead to work with colleagues in other health profession schools to prepare graduates to understand each others’ roles, and the importance of teamwork, communication, and collaboration to the delivery of high quality, safe patient care.

Bodenheimer T.,&Sinsky, C. (2014). From triple to quadruple aim: care of the patient requires care of the provider. Annals Family Medicine. 12(6):573-576.

Abstract

The Triple Aim–enhancing patient experience, improving population health, and reducing costs–is widely accepted as a compass to optimize health system performance. Yet physicians and other members of the health care workforce report widespread burnout and dissatisfaction. Burnout is associated with lower patient satisfaction, reduced health outcomes, and it may increase costs. Burnout thus imperils the Triple Aim. This article recommends that the Triple Aim be expanded to a Quadruple Aim, adding the goal of improving the work life of health care providers, including clinicians and staff.

Brandt, B.F. (2015). Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice: Welcome to the “New” Forty-Year Old Field. The Advisor, 34(1), 9-17.

Introduction

Since 1999, the United States (U.S.) healthcare delivery system has been transforming in profound and fundamental ways in response to the publication of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, To err is human. This report was the first of a trilogy of publications that includes Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21st century and The bridge to quality: Health professions education. These reports introduced concerns about the quality of the U.S. healthcare system and the inability of health professionals to work together in teams. The lack of teamwork, collaboration and communication skills is implicated in a wide range of adverse patient and health outcomes in the world’s most costly – by far – health system. As U.S. healthcare leaders responded and led transformation, recognition grew that the graduates of health professions schools may be technically competent but are not ready to practice in today’s evolving health system. Therefore, many healthcare leaders and educators are calling for “new” models of education: interprofessional education (IPE) linked to collaborative practice and team-based care. Concurrently since 2010, while the Affordable Care Act (ACA) grabs headlines, remarkable and historic developments are occurring in both healthcare delivery systems and health professions education to transform both. These developments will impact today’s undergraduate advisees and professional students who advance into health careers. Many planned changes and rapid disruptive innovations in healthcare are creating a new U.S. healthcare system that is not yet well understood. The purposes of this paper are to describe the seismic shifts in healthcare creating calls for interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) and to provide references and resources to enable advisors, faculty, and students of the health professions to keep abreast of and adapt to the changes.

Frost, J., Hammer, D., Nunez, L., Adams, J., Chesluk, B., Grus, C., Harvison, N., McGuinn, K., Mortensen, L., Nishimoto, J., Palatta, A., Richmond, M., Ross, E., Tegzes, J., Ruffin, A., & Bentley, J. (2018). The intersection of professionalism and interprofessional care: development and initial testing of the interprofessional professionalism assessment (IPA). Journal of Interprofessional Care, 33(1), 102–115.

Abstract

Professionalism has typically been defined as a set of non-cognitive characteristics (such as empathy) or as a set of humanistic values and behaviors through which clinicians express a commitment to excellence and compassion (Stern, 2006). Its importance is underscored by the widespread adoption of language and policies by associations, accreditors, and regulatory agencies across the health professions that require clinicians to be trained and assessed on professionalism (Greiner & Knebel,2003). Yet, a critical conceptual gap remains in defining how professionalism contributes to improved patient outcomes, especially in the context of interprofessional care environments. Elucidation of the link between professionalism and interprofessional care is an important issue to examine. Although contemporary clinicians do not practice in social isolation, development of the professionalism concept has neglected its link to collaborative care. In the contemporary context, professionalism contributes to safe, highquality care primarily by supporting and fostering effective interprofessional care (Gilbert, Yan, & Hoffman, 2010). We believe that persistent disciplinary insularity in health professions education has prevented this connection from being adequately emphasized.

Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative. (2019). Guidance on Developing quality interprofessional education for the health professions. Chicago, IL: Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative.

From the Executive Summary

“The Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative (HPAC) was established to formalize interactions across accreditors and to serve as a platform for proactive problem-solving and sharing of information on a broad range of topics. In response to emerging health system change and the creation of national competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice, individual HPAC members have been independently creating accreditation policies, processes and/or standards for interprofessional education (IPE). Early discussions among HPAC members identified the need to ensure that their individual actions facilitated and and were not barriers to the development of quality IPE at constituent institutions.

Institute of Medicine (2015). Measuring the impact of interprofessional education on collaborative practice and patient outcomes. The National Academies Press.

Description

Interprofessional teamwork and collaborative practice are emerging as key elements of efficient and productive work in promoting health and treating patients. The vision for these collaborations is one where different health and/or social professionals share a team identity and work closely together to solve problems and improve delivery of care. Although the value of interprofessional education (IPE) has been embraced around the world – particularly for its impact on learning – many in leadership positions have questioned how IPE affects patient, population, and health systems outcomes. This question cannot be fully answered without well-designed studies, and these studies cannot be conducted without an understanding of the methods and measurements needed to conduct such analysis.

Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2016). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: 2016 update. Washington, D.C.: Interprofessional Education Collaborative.

Description

This publication is an update of the landmark 2011 document that outlined four core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice. Executive Summary: In 2009, six national associations of schools of health professions formed a collaborative to promote and encourage constituent effort that would advance substantive interprofessional learning experiences. That goal was, and remains, to help prepare future health professionals for enhanced team-based care of patients and improved population health outcomes. The collaborative, representing dentistry, nursing medicine, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy and public health, convened an expert panel of representatives from each of the six IPEC sponsor professions to create core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice, to guide curriculum development across health professions schools. The competencies and implementation recommendations subsequently published in the 2011 Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice have been broadly disseminated. In this 2016 release, the IPEC Board updates the document with a three-fold purpose, to:

• Reaffirm the value and impact of the core competencies and sub-competencies as promulgated under the auspices of IPEC.
• Organize the competencies within a singular domain on Interprofessional Collaboration, encompassing the topics of values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams and teamwork. These four topical areas were initially proposed as domains within interprofessional education (IPE). However, in the time since publication, it has become clear that interprofessional collaboration stands as a domain unto itself. Furthermore, creating a shared taxonomy among the health professions serves to streamline and synergize educational activities and related assessment and evaluation efforts.
• Broaden the interprofessional competencies to better achieve the Triple Aim (improve the patient experience of care, improve the health of populations, and reduce the per capita cost of health care), with particular reference to population health.

Khalili, H., Orchard, C., Laschinger, H.,&Farah, R. (2013). An interprofessional socialization framework for developing an interprofessional identity among health professions students. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 27(6), 448–453.

Abstract

Although health professional educational programs have been successful in equipping graduates with skills, knowledge and professionalism, the emphasis on specialization and profession-specific education has enhanced the development of a uniprofessional identity, which has been found to be a major barrier to interprofessional collaborative person-centered practice (IPCPCP). Changes within healthcare professional education programs are necessary to enable a shift in direction toward interprofessional socialization (IPS) to promote IPCPCP. Currently, there is a paucity of conceptual frameworks to guide IPS. In this article, we present a framework designed to help illuminate an IPS process, which may inform efforts by educators and curriculum developers to facilitate the development of health professions students’ dual identity, that is, an interprofessional identity in addition to their existing professional identity, as a first step toward IPCPCP. 

The Nexus. Sponsored by the National Center for Interprofessional Education.

Introduction

Today, a very real and substantial gap exists between health professions education and health care delivery in the United States. The goal of the National Center Nexus is to bridge this gap by creating a deeply connected, integrated learning system to transform education and care together. The Nexus is able to critically examine current evidence and practices and create practical models that can then be effectively integrated into different clinical and learning environments. Pulling together vastly different stakeholders such as patients, families and communities; and incorporating students and residents into the interprofessional team helps achieve the Triple Aim of creating better experiences, improving health, and reducing costs.

Reeves, S., Pelone, F., Harrison, R., Goldman, J., & Zwarenstein, M. (2017). Interprofessional collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Issue 6.

Abstract

Background: Poor interprofessional collaboration (IPC) can adversely affect the delivery of health services and patient care. Interventions that address IPC problems have the potential to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Objectives: To assess the impact of practice‐based interventions designed to improve interprofessional collaboration (IPC) amongst health and social care professionals, compared to usual care or to an alternative intervention, on at least one of the following primary outcomes: patient health outcomes, clinical process or efficiency outcomes or secondary outcomes (collaborative behaviour). Search methods: We searched CENTRAL (2015, issue 11), MEDLINE, CINAHL, ClinicalTrials.gov and WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform to November 2015. We handsearched relevant interprofessional journals to November 2015, and reviewed the reference lists of the included studies.

Spencer, S.M, Oliveira, J., Ruben, M.A., Blais, C. & Nugent, L.A. (2020). Interdisciplinary Education as a Route to Promoting Psychology across Occupations.

Excerpt from Article

Perceptions of the value of psychology as a discipline have an impact on majors and non-majors that carry into students’ personal and professional lives. Many people (majors and non-majors) continue to believe psychology is the study and treatment of mental illness. What can psychology instructors do to change this misperception of the discipline and improve the valuation of the major? We suggest one powerful way to improve perceptions of the value of psychology knowledge and skills among students, in and outside of the major, and faculty across disciplines is through interdisciplinary education (IDE).

Tunstall-Pedoe, S., Rink, E., & Hilton, S. (2009). Student attitudes to undergraduate interprofessional education. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 17(2), 161–172.

Abstract

Interprofessional education in health care has been the focus of increasing attention in recent years. However, there is still great debate about when and how to introduce it in undergraduate studies. St George’s Hospital Medical School with the Joint Faculty of Health Care Sciences of Kingston University was ideally placed to introduce, as part of its 1996 new curriculum, a Common Foundation Programme (CFP). This incorporated degree students in medicine, radiography, physiotherapy, and nursing learning together for the first term of their courses. As part of the evaluation of the CFP, students’ attitudes to the course and each other were surveyed at the beginning and the end of the term, for the 1998 and 1999 intakes. The results showed that students arrive at university with stereotyped views of each other, and that these views appeared to become more exaggerated during the CFP. Students felt that the CFP would enhance interprofessional working, but there were concerns that it forced them to learn irrelevant skills. Students whose parents worked as health care professionals, held stronger stereotyped views. Our findings challenge any notion that students arrive without preconceived ideas about the other professions. Further work is needed to appropriate models for interprofessional education, to enable graduates to work effectively in today’s environment.

World Health Organization. (2010). Framework for action on interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO Press.

Summary

At a time when the world is facing a shortage of health workers, policymakers are looking for innovative strategies that can help them develop policy and programmes to bolster the global health workforce. The Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice highlights the current status of interprofessional collaboration around the world, identifies the mechanisms that shape successful collaborative teamwork and outlines a series of action items that policy-makers can apply within their local health system. The goal of the Framework is to provide strategies and ideas that will help health policy-makers implement the elements of interprofessional education and collaborative practice that will be most beneficial in their own jurisdiction.