The Imperative for Interprofessional Education

Abstract

In the evolving contexts of health care delivery and health professions education, issues of patient safety; public health, health promotion, and disease prevention; and team-based, patient-centered care are at the forefront. Within each of these issues, interprofessional education and interprofessional practice are strategies to achieve the goals of effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable health care.1 Pharmacy education has embraced the vision of the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Health Professions Education Summit that “[a]ll health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches, and informatics.”2 Educational Outcomes 2004, the document published by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's (AACP) Center for the Advancement of Pharmaceutical Education that guides curriculum development at colleges and schools of pharmacy, incorporates language that explicitly describes the expectation that graduates will collaborate with other health care providers in the provision of pharmaceutical care, management of systems, and engagement in public health.3 The Accreditation Standards and Guidelines (Standards 2007) promulgated by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education now hold colleges and schools of pharmacy accountable for designing, delivering, and assessing educational programs that prepare future pharmacists to provide patient-centered care as members of interprofessional health care teams.4 Development of a contemporary student's identity as a pharmacist must now include how he or she, as a pharmacist, will participate in the care of patients as a member of a team of professionals.