Physician assistants go on to work in a variety of settings — many of which demand an ability to work with diverse sets of professionals. Those who engage in research will discover a culture of funding that necessitates working with an interdisciplinary group of professionals who bring different perspectives and approaches to a problem. Few physician assistants find a career path that limits their professional interactions to only other PAs.
Yet it never ceases to amaze that, when working with groups of professionals who come from different training backgrounds, members of each work group often struggle to "get along" with their colleagues from professions outside of their own — colleagues who bring a different perspective and have undergone different training. This difficulty arises for many reasons, including politics, unspoken professional hierarchies and isolation among professional training programs — to name a few.
According to the World Health Organization, interprofessional education (IPE) occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes This key professional attribute is so important that many training programs have begun instituting classes that are specific to this exposure and skill.
This is particularly true for NP and PA programs across the country. The potential impact of this exposure on improvements in quality of care and working relationships among healthcare providers is significant. So much so that the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and the Physician Assistant Education Association released a joint position statement in 2012 advocating for increased interprofessional collaboration and educational training.
Programs in IPE provide an effective mechanism for development of critical knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for a competent, collaborative healthcare team member. Within this process, trainees develop increased leadership capacity, respect for other cultures and ultimately improved patient care — making IPE an essential component of holistic training regimes.
Many schools offer training programs in this training area, however many still do not. Thus, the following collection of resources may be used to bring awareness of this initiative to your alma mater or to assist you in your search for independent training in this area.
Interprofessional Education Collaborative: In 2009, six national education associations of schools of the health professions formed a collaborative to promote and encourage constituent efforts that would advance substantive interprofessional learning experiences to help prepare future clinicians for team-based care of patients. The IPE collaborative has developed core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice that guide curricula development at all health profession schools. Endorsed by the Physician Assistant Education Association.
IOM report on Interprofessional Education for Collaboration: In 2012, the Institute of Medicine Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education held its first two workshops, focusing on linkages between IPE and collaborative practice. The workshops set the stage for defining and understanding IPE and provided living histories of speakers from around the world who shared experiences working in collaborative practice. This report summarizes the workshops.
The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education: This organization leads, coordinates and studies the advancement of collaborative, team-based health professions education and patient care as an efficient model for improving quality, outcomes and cost. It is the only such organization in the United States, designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the sole center to provide leadership, scholarship, evidence, coordination and national visibility to advance IPE and practice as a viable and efficient health care delivery model.
Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel: Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: Report of a 2011 expert panel. The report identifies four broad domains of interprofessional competency — values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional communication and team-based care — as well as 38 subcompetencies that specifically describe essential behaviors.
