Nursing Inter Professional Education What Is Inter-Professional Education?
Inter-professional education (IPE) occurs when students and faculty from multiple health professions work together in teams, requiring a common language and understanding of collaborative practice. According to the United Kingdom’s Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE, 2002), IPE goes beyond merely having students from different disciplines study together. The CAIPE definition, widely accepted in health professions education, describes IPE as purposeful activities designed for students to learn from, with, and about each other to provide collaborative, team-based care that emphasizes quality.
IPE is not simply about taking the same courses together; it involves structured learning experiences aimed at promoting collaborative practice. Two key national initiatives have significantly shaped the approach to IPE and collaborative practice in nursing education: the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (2011), and the 2010 Lancet Commission Report, Health Professionals for a New Century: Transforming Education to Strengthen Health Systems in an Interdependent World (Frenk et al., 2010).
Both reports make recommendations that impact nursing education. The Future of Nursing report (2011) advocates for nurses to become full partners with physicians in redesigning healthcare, not only empowering them to lead but also to collaborate effectively with other health professionals in reforming health care. For this to be possible, nursing education must focus on training nurses to be leaders and collaborative partners, skilled in areas such as process improvement, health care systems, financing, patient safety, and policy development. Leadership training should promote collaboration and mutual respect, enabling nurses to make decisions and act independently while working with the broader health care team. These recommendations align closely with the “Team and Teamwork” competencies proposed for health profession students (Inter-professional Education Collaborative [IPEC] Expert Panel Report, 2011).
Key competencies include:
- Competency #5: Applying leadership practices that support collaborative practice and team effectiveness.
- Competency W7: Sharing accountability with other professions, patients, and communities for outcomes related to prevention and healthcare (p. 25).
External Influences in Nursing Education
Over the past decade, several external forces have shaped changes in health professions education, particularly around IPE. These forces include:
- Establishment of National and International Organizations Supporting IPE: Organizations have been founded to promote inter-professional education and collaborative practice, reflecting a growing recognition of the value of IPE in improving health outcomes.
- Changes in Accreditation Standards Requiring IPE: Accreditation standards have increasingly mandated the inclusion of IPE in health professions education, ensuring that future health professionals are trained to work in inter-professional teams (Zorek & Raehl, 2013).
- Health Care Reform Aligning Financial Incentives for Team-Based Care: Legislative changes, such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010), have promoted a shift towards team-based care models that emphasize quality rather than the volume of care.
- Discipline-Specific and International Reports Promoting Improved Health Care Delivery: Various reports and forums have focused on enhancing the efficiency and equity of health care delivery, advocating for inter-professional education to foster better collaboration among health professionals.
- Funding of National Centers for IPE Coordination: Institutions like the University of Minnesota’s National Center for Inter-professional Practice and Education have been established through public and private partnerships to coordinate IPE and collaborative practice efforts.
The relationship between IPE and collaborative practice was highlighted in the 2010 World Health Organization (WHO) report, Framework for Action on Inter-professional Education and Collaborative Practice. The WHO report stated, “After almost 50 years of inquiry, the World Health Organization and its partners acknowledge that there is sufficient evidence to indicate that effective inter-professional education enables effective collaborative practice. Collaborative practice strengthens health systems and improves health outcomes” (p. 7).
In 2010, six national health profession associations collaborated to form the IPEC (Inter-professional Education Collaborative). These founding organizations include the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, the American Dental Education Association, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and the Association of Schools of Public Health. In 2011, the IPEC published a report outlining four competency domains and 38 sub-competencies for inter-professional collaborative practice (IPEC, 2011). These domains are:
- Values/Ethics for Inter-professional Practice
- Roles/Responsibilities
- Inter-professional Communication
- Teams and Teamwork
The Lancet Commission Report and Its Implications
The Lancet Commission Report (Frenk et al., 2010) was a seminal document in health professions education and is particularly relevant for nurse educators. It led to the creation of the International Global Forum on Innovations in Health Professions Education, which brought together educational leaders from academia, practice, professional organizations, and governments to discuss necessary institutional and instructional reforms.
Two of the ten proposed reforms in the Lancet Commission Report, which are directly relevant to nursing education, are:
- Promotion of Inter-professional and Trans-professional Education: This reform aims to break down professional silos while fostering collaborative and non-hierarchical relationships within effective teams (Reform #2).
- Promoting a New Professionalism Using Competencies as Criteria: This reform advocates for using competencies as objective criteria for classifying health professionals, moving away from conventional professional silos (Reform #6, p. 1951).
These recommendations align with the goals of the Future of Nursing report (2011) and the Lancet Commission Report (2010), both of which emphasize the need for changes in nursing education to create competent leaders who can engage in decision-making and collaborative practice in health care reform.
Implementing IPE in Nursing Education
To implement these recommendations, nursing professionals at all levels—from deans to pre-licensure students—must demonstrate leadership. Nursing deans should collaborate with other health science deans to provide the necessary infrastructure and resources to develop IPE-competent faculty. Nurse educators need to create opportunities for inter-professional education within the core curriculum, engaging students with peers from other health professions. Additionally, nursing students should take the lead in IPE activities, working to break down professional silos.
Through leadership and active participation at all levels, nurses will be better positioned to demonstrate competency in IPE and collaborative practice, ultimately contributing to a healthcare environment that emphasizes high-quality, safe, patient- or population-centered care.
Conclusion
Inter-professional education in nursing is essential for preparing future health professionals to work collaboratively in an increasingly complex healthcare environment. By fostering teamwork, communication, and shared accountability among health professions, IPE contributes to better health outcomes and a stronger healthcare system. The successful integration of IPE into nursing education will require sustained commitment from all levels of the nursing profession, supported by institutional leadership, collaborative practices, and targeted educational reforms.