Abstract
The World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (WHO-ICF) is a comprehensive and highly adaptable framework that provides a universal language and shared health concepts to articulate human functioning across the lifespan and from individual to population health settings. It provides a global, biopsychosocial, and holistic structure for conceptualising the human experience of health and health service provision. Consequently, the ICF framework offers hope for a universal map for health service providers that bridges professional, cultural, economic, and geographical variations. While the use of the ICF is typically mandated by health professions accreditation bodies, integration of the ICF in medical and health professional education programmes has been slow. In addition, its potential for scaffolding interprofessional education for collaborative practice has not been maximised. In this Perspective paper, we draw on our extensive experience in developing curricula and teaching within a range of health professions programmes (medicine, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech-language pathology) to provide advice on conceptual, theoretical, and practical dimensions of embedding the ICF framework within curricula to support interprofessional education and collaborative practice.
Highlights
Interprofessional education for collaborative practice (IPECP) has been posited as a pathway for improving the delivery of complex health services in the 21st century
Practical synergies between International Classification of Functioning (ICF) and IPECP allow us to tap into a range of resources, including the ICF agreed shared language and ICF-informed clinical tools, assessments and evaluations that can support interprofessional education and team-based care, for example, Australian Therapy Outcome Measures (AusTOMs)[21] and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM).[22]
Learning outcomes should be integrated and flow developmentally from simple to complex and beginner to advanced. These processes are well described in integrated curriculum programmes such as the University of British Columbia (UBC) Model for Interprofessional Education[24] and University of Washington (UW) Health Sciences Curricular Framework for Interprofessional Education[25] where students complete exposure-type learning activities early in their programmes, progressing to immersionbased learning as their skills develop, and activities focused on mastery of practice as they prepare to transition to their professional lives
Summary
Interprofessional education for collaborative practice (IPECP) has been posited as a pathway for improving the delivery of complex health services in the 21st century. Limited authentic interprofesssional learning opportunities, could be mitigated by incorporating the ICF framework into health professional curricula.[16] Access to a common set of meanings and language for shared communication is an essential condition for interprofessional education and collaboration.
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