There have been increasing calls for a competency-based approach in interprofessional education (IPE). The purpose of this multi-site research project was to develop a validated set of interprofessional collaborator competencies and an associated competency-based assessment rubric, in both English and French languages. The first phase involved a detailed comparative analysis of peer-reviewed and grey literature using typological analysis to construct a draft list of interprofessional collaborator competency categories and statements. A two-round Delphi survey of experts was undertaken to validate these competencies. In the second phase, an assessment rubric was developed based on the validated competencies and then evaluated for utility, clarity, practicality and fairness through multi-site focus groups with students and faculty at both college and university levels. The paper outlines an approach to developing, constructing and validating a bilingual instrument for interprofessional learning and assessment. The approach was collaborative in nature, involving an interprofessional project team and respondents from across multiple health profession education programs. The Delphi survey ratings indicate a high level of agreement with the importance of the competency statements and focus group participants rated the rubric positively and felt it had value. The focus group results were also useful in pre-piloting the contextual application of the instrument across multiple health profession education programs. This rubric instrument may be used across a variety of professions and learning contexts. Future work includes evaluation of further dimensions of validity and reliability for this tool across a variety of settings.

Globally, the advent and rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus has created significant disruption to health professions education and practice, and consequently interprofessional education, leading to a model of learning and practicing where much is unknown. Key questions for this ongoing evolution emerge for the global context leading to reflections on future directions for the interprofessional education field and its role in shaping future practice models. Health professions programs around the world have made a dramatic shift to virtual learning platforms in response to closures of academic institutions and restrictions imposed on learners accessing practice settings. Telemedicine, slow to become established in many countries to date, has also revolutionized practice in the current environment. Within the state of disruption and rapid change is the awareness of a silver lining that provides an opportunity for future growth. Key topics explored in this commentary include reflection on the application of existing competency frameworks, consideration of typology of team structures, reconsideration of theoretical underpinnings, revisiting of core dimensions of education, adaptation of interprofessional education activities, and the role in the future pandemic planning. As an international community of educators and researchers, the authors consider current observations relevant to interprofessional education and practice contexts and suggest a response from scholarship voices across the globe. The current pandemic offers a unique opportunity for educators, practitioners, and researchers to retain what has served interprofessional education and practice well in the past, break from what has not worked as well, and begin to imagine the new.

This paper will highlight how a literature review and stakeholder-expert feedback guided the creation of an interprofessional facilitator-collaborator competency tool, which was then used to design an interprofessional facilitator development program for the Partners for Interprofessional Cancer Education (PICE) Project. Cancer Care Nova Scotia (CCNS), one of the PICE Project partners, uses an Interprofessional Core Curriculum (ICC) to provide continuing education workshops to community-based practitioners, who as a portion of their practice, care for patients experiencing cancer. In order to deliver this curriculum, health professionals from a variety of disciplines required education that would enable them to become culturally sensitive interprofessional educators in promoting collaborative patient-centred practice. The Registered Nurses Professional Development Centre (RN-PDC), another PICE Project partner, has expertise in performance-based certification program design and utilizes a competency-based methodology in its education framework. This framework and methodology was used to develop the necessary interprofessional facilitator competencies that incorporate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for performance. Three main competency areas evolved, each with its own set of competencies, performance criteria and behavioural indicators.

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