In January, we awarded two new grants that will help lay the foundation for national implementation of interprofessional education:
The University of Missouri and the University of Washington will create an interprofessional faculty development training program that prepares faculty for teaching students how to work effectively as part of a team and provides them with teaching resources, including web-based simulated cases and student assessment tools, to facilitate interprofessional education. The program will be piloted at six academic health centers and will provide a model that can be replicated in institutions across the country.
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) will create a national clearinghouse of information on effective ways to educate students to work collaboratively. Together with the InterProfessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), the AAMC will compile a series of peer-reviewed teaching, learning and assessment resources that will help inform development and implementation of interprofessional curriculums and provide faculty with tools for teaching collaborative practice and team-based care.
With these two projects we are putting into action steps that were identified by leaders in health care and education as critical to advancing interprofessional education. These steps were outlined in an action plan by participants in the Macy-sponsored 2011 Conference on Team-Based Competencies. Read the conference report and this summary from our President George Thibault for more information.