Leveraging the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Competency Framework to Transform Health Professions Education

Abstract

Interprofessional learning experiences prepare future health care professionals for enhanced team-based care of patients and improved population health outcomes. The Interprofessional Education Collaborative's (IPEC) core competencies have become the gold standard for planning, implementation, and assessment of IPE activities. However, the IPEC framework is inconsistently applied across institutions. The IPEC Board of Directors decided to formally address this issue through the development of an institutional assessment instrument. This instrument would leverage IPEC competencies to identify institutional characteristics tied to the successful implementation of programmatic IPE. IPEC partnered with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in this effort. A panel of nationally recognized experts in IPE was formed to contribute to the instrument development process. While demonstrating a need for such an instrument, this commentary also encourages institutional IPE leaders across the United States to volunteer as item pilot testers, a critical step in the instrument development process.