A Behavior-Analytic Perspective on Interprofessional Collaboration

Abstract

Collaborative service delivery models have gained considerable popularity in health care, education, and clinical settings. Despite the unique opportunity that this new popularity provides for the dissemination of applied behavior analysis, the majority of practicing behavior analysts have received little or no formal professional development on how to participate in teams with nonbehavioral colleagues. The purpose of this article is to elucidate the larger movement toward collaborative service delivery with an emphasis on interprofessionalism. The four core competency domains presented by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Framework are interpreted through a behavior-analytic lens. This article is an initial attempt to operationalize constructs commonly associated with interprofessional educational and collaborative practices including (but not limited to) cultural sensitivity and responsiveness, cultural humility and reciprocity, empathy, and compassion.