Implementing Interprofessional Education into nurse practitioner curricula: Faculty education and engagement

The need for highly-skilled and knowledgeable collaborative teams to provide patient-centered care is well documented. Background and practice working with interprofessional teams is a crucial part of DNP education. Many DNP faculty did not learn about interprofessional healthcare in their own education. We implemented a variety of strategies to help DNP faculty understand and embrace IPE in family and psychiatric nurse practitioner curricula. We began by educating faculty on methods around collaborative care so that they could assist students to implement interprofessional strategies in simulated team-based encounters with patients with multiple chronic conditions.  We first trained faculty in TeamSTEPPS,^®an evidence-based system to improve communication and teamwork among health care professionals, and Motivational Interviewing, an evidence-based approach to support people to move to changing health behaviors. Faculty participated workshops that actively engaged them in learning and applying new instructional methods related to IPE and the use of debriefing after simulated and clinical patient encounters. Finally, faculty from nursing, pharmacy, medicine, social work, nutrition, and exercise science implemented a standardized patient program together, using regular team meetings to apply new knowledge in planning and assisting students to apply new knowledge and skills about interprofessional practice. The combination of participation in educational offerings, as well as working together to design, implement, and evaluate interprofessional learning activities, has expanded faculty understanding of their roles.