Interprofessional education: Growing focus on preparing students for team-based care

Abstract

“The students will be judged on whether they seek information from the right professions at the right time to make better patient care decisions,” Lucinda Maine, BSPharm, PhD, Executive Vice President and CEO of AACP, told Pharmacy Today. The game is just one example that highlights the growing focus on interprofessional education (IPE) in pharmacy education. Through IPE, pharmacy schools are teaching students how to work with other medical professionals, such as physicians and nurses, to prepare them for team-based care— whether in a hospital, integrated health system, or community practice setting. And for the first time, accreditors from almost all health professions, including pharmacy, are requiring IPE in their curriculum. Final 2016 standards from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) will be published early next year and are expected to lay out significant changes. The standards state that pharmacy curricula must prepare all students with the skills to provide entry-level, patient-centered care in a variety of practice settings as contributing members of interprofessional teams. “The fact that now accreditors are requiring it is a big change,” Peter H. Vlasses, PharmD, DSc (Hon), BCPS, FCCP, Executive Director of ACPE, told Today. Vlasses said it’s the first time almost all of medicine includes IPE competency expectations in standards. “So now instead of accreditors being blind to this like they were in the past, the stars are lining up so that professionals all agree that we need to do this and we need to work together,” said Vlasses.