New Heights in Interprofessional Education: Where are we/Where are we going?

This armchair discussion will detail a unique Interprofessional Education (IPE) Model between academic institutions and a medical center, discussing the evolution of this model contrasted with other IPE models and engage listeners in the development of IPE models. This project has had many challenges along the way and there have been a variety of models that have been tried and found to be unsuccessful.  Additionally, there are several other interprofessional activities at the university level and several of those have informed this project and several have constituted learning activities for this site.  Four of the faculty (two from each school) will be involved in the discussion and will share the lessons learned. Specific questions will be discussed with opportunities for dialogue among armchair discussion participants. 1.) The questions will include: How do we move from “parallel play “in interprofessional education to a true intraprofessional collaborative education model? 2.) How did this program evolve and how did the academic centers and the medical center partner to develop this IPE model? 3.) How is the IPE learning experience structured? 4.) How have the students responded to this learning experience? 5.) What lessons have we learned about IPE through the Center of Excellence (COE) experience and what recommendations do we have for the development of future intraprofessional education models?

The final activity in the armchair discussion will be an open dialogue about future directions for IPE based on the  lived experiences of the armchair discussion participants. We will also lead a discussion on how to evaluate the impact of IPE education on transitions to practice.