Chapter 7: Strategic Inquiry for Improving Learning and Teaching in an Interprofessional Education Program

Interprofessional Education (IPE) is when “when two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes” (World Health Organization, 2010). IPE is the educational basis for the movement of healthcare towards a paradigm that embraces interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP). This idea was introduced in 1972 and has since seen remarkable growth (Brandt, 2015), particularly since the introduction of the Triple Aim (a framework for medicine focused on improving patient outcomes, improving the patient experience, and decreasing cost of care) (Beasley, 2009). More recently, the Quadruple Aim was introduced which adds provider well-being to this paradigm (Bodenheimer & Sinsky, 2014). Today, IPE is widely accepted as important for meeting these goals of improved patient outcomes, and indeed is required for inclusion in health professions education programming by many accrediting bodies (Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative, 2019).