Interprofessional Education Approach Research Articles

Start of the Road: Views on Interprofessional Education among Faculty of a Medical School in Turkey

Aim: Interprofessional Education (IPE) has been emphasized as an important pedagogical strategy for improving collaboration and the quality of care. Before implementing this strategy to curriculum with a program it is important to determine the views of the instructors about the program, for its initiation, sustainability and success. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the opinions of faculty members in the Süleyman Demirel University School of Medicine (SDUSM) about IPE.Methods: This descriptive study used qualitative data obtained with the semi-structure interview method. Out of 185 faculty members, 38 of them attended an informative meeting about IPE. The sample group was established by random selection who volunteered to participate, interviews continued t ill the data saturation is observed (n=14). The recordings of the interview were transcribed and content analyses of the qualitative data were carried out by four experts. MAXQDA software (version 12) was used in content analysis for thematic coding and determining frequency distributions.2 Results: The faculty members discussed the feasibility of IPE programs, models of the educational program, the positive aspects and barriers of implementing IPE and its potential contribution to the medical profession. Faculty members mentioned several barriers related to the implementation of IPE. Also, they stated that the IPE approach would facilitate adaptation to professional life and possibly help produce well-equipped and self-confident doctors with strong communication, empathy, and team working skills.Conclusions: In line with these opinions, IPE can be considered as an educational method that can be implemented in SDUSM.

Family Assistance Program With Interprofessional Education Approach In Labuan Panimba

Stunting is caused by multidimensional factors so that the handling needs to be done by multisectoral or interprofessional collaborations. Central Sulawesi is an area that still has many health problems regarding nutrition, in preventing various problems related to stunting, the role of the family and community plays a very important role in the recovery phase. The roles and functions of families and communities greatly affect the health conditions of individuals, families, groups, and communities. 
 The results of the mentoring and assessment that became a problem were the provision of complementary feeding. The provision of appropriate complementary feeding according to recommendations and utilizing local wisdom can help prevent stunting, and can introduce healthy eating habits for mothers and children under two by utilizing nutritious food found in their environment. In addition, as an effort to make significant progress in improving the health and quality of children, especially in Indonesia.
 Conclusions in the handling of stunting, each team shall have the duty and authority so that there is no overlap. Teams of health workers who work for the handling of stunting are nutritionists, midwives, nurses and Promkes, village head. Each has their own duties and powers. The achievement targets for this community service are Modules and Intellectual Property Rights.

Interprofessional education in the rural environment to enhance multidisciplinary care in future practice: Breaking down silos in tertiary health education.

Western Sydney University has implemented a rural interprofessional learning programme to promote collaborative care approaches to enhance cross-discipline communications, improve knowledge and clarity of roles and improve patient care and outcomes. Rural interprofessinal learning is an interprofessional educational approach, consisting of simulations of complex health events. Simulation methodology frames the study with a focus on human interaction. A mixed-methods evaluation has been conducted, incorporating pre- and post- event participant surveys along with semi-structured focus groups. Simulations are conducted in the rural setting, including community settings, working farms and rural hospitals. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify themes measuring students' perceptions of interdisciplinary care, knowlede of other health discipline roles and skills and how they believe the exercise will influence their future practice. Facilitator feedback regarding the efficacy of the simulations was also recorded and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Care of simulated patient(s)/bystander(s) is primarily provided by paramedicine, nursing and medical students; however, increasing interest has expanded the programme to include students from a range of allied health professions. Simulations are facilitated by a multidisciplinary team of experienced practitioners and specialists. Four rural interprofessional learning events have been held. 120 students have participated in the evaluation. Findings include increased understanding of the contributions of other disciplines in enhancing patient care, team approaches, cross-discipline communication and a need to engage in collaborative care in future practice. Creating a collaborative learning environment creates a culture of multidisciplinary care, enhancing patient care and improving outcomes. The rural interprofessional learning model is an effective interprofessional educational approach, which can be repeated, refined and improved for continual professional development.

The Interprofessional Educational Exchange: Improving Faculty Ability to Create Interprofessional Education in Palliative Oncology (SCI916)

1.List 3 reasons why faculty development in IPE for palliative care is needed.2.Name 3 approaches for developing faculty IPE knowledge and skills3.Describe one successful faculty development program for those using IPE approaches to teach oncology palliative care The Interprofessional Education Exchange (iPEX) provides education, training and mentoring in the development and implementation of interprofessional education (IPE) in palliative oncology. Participating faculty teams are selected through a competitive application process and represent educational institutions and healthcare systems from across the nation. Each team has representatives from three or more disciplines. To evaluate a national palliative care faculty development program preparing teams to develop and implement IPE. The program utilizes a variety of teaching/learning approaches. Online learning includes two webinars and three interactive online modules followed by face-to-face workshop. Participants learn and practice collaborative teaching/learning techniques, reflective activities and facilitation skills. Faculty teams develop a plan for palliative IPE at their home institutions. Follow-up mentoring and a final webinar exchanging each team’s progress and plans are additional components. A pre/posttest design was used to evaluate learner’s progress related to self-efficacy in IPE skills (using the Interprofessional Facilitation Skills Checklist) and IPE competency (using the Core Competencies for Interprofessional Practice Individual Competency Assessment Tool). Learners rated the effectiveness of the program components on a scale of 1-5 (1= not at all effective, 5= extremely effective). Sixteen teams have completed the iPEX program. Each developed curriculum tailored to the needs of their learners. Pre/post paired samples t-test scores (n=78) on both standardized instruments were significantly different (p < 0.001). Ratings of program components were: workshop = 4.90; online modules = 4.18; mentoring = 4.18; website = 4.17; webinars = 3.97; and the eXchange teleconference = 4.0. The iPEX project is a successful faculty development program training faculty teams in IPE skills and competencies.

Enhancing communication skills among residents in India: An interprofessional education approach

BackgroundInterprofessional education (IPE) provides opportunities to postgraduates to develop communication skills which are vital for interactions with patients, their relatives, colleagues, paramedical and nursing staff. There is a need to develop an innovative IPE based module on communication skills for postgraduates stressing upon the existing lacunae and requirements detected by a validated assessment tool. We assessed the residents' appraisal of communication skills by a validated questionnaire to identify key areas to improve their communication skills and to determine perceptions of all the stakeholders i.e. faculty, nursing staff and paramedical staff. MethodsA descriptive correlational design using an online self-administered questionnaire on a sample of a total of 200 participants comprising residents, paramedical staff, nursing staff and faculty of tertiary care hospital. Study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee. Data was analysed by SPSS Version 22.0 used. (p value < 0.05 significant). ResultsThe participants included 113 residents, 17 paramedical staff, 33 Nursing staff and 37 faculty members. The present study found a significant difference of scores of means between the residents, faculty, paramedical staff and nursing staff p value < 0.05 except for alter centrism, interaction management and environmental control. The mean scores were also significantly different between the first, second and third year residents. ConclusionThis study validates the need to enhance the communication skills of residents. The scores obtained will help us design and refine IPE module for the benefit of the residents.

Interprofessional and multiprofessional approaches in quality improvement education.

The imperative for all healthcare professionals to partake in quality improvement (QI) has resulted in the development of QI education programs with participants from different professional backgrounds. However, there is limited empirical and theoretical examination as to why, when and how interprofessional and multiprofessional education occurs in QI and the outcomes of these approaches. This paper reports on a qualitative collective case study of interprofessional and multiprofessional education in three longitudinal QI education programs. We conducted 58 interviews with learners, QI project coaches, program directors and institutional leads and 135h of observations of in-class education sessions, and collected relevant documents such as course syllabi and handouts. We used an interpretive thematic analysis using a conventional and directed content analysis approach. In the directed content approach, we used sociology of professions theory with particular attention to professional socialization, hierarchies and boundaries in QI, to understand the ways in which individuals' professional backgrounds informed the planning and experiences of the QI education programs. Findings demonstrated that both interprofessional and multiprofessional education approaches were being used to achieve different education objectives. While each approach demonstrated positive learning and practice outcomes, tensions related to the different ways in which professional groups are engaging in QI, power dynamics between professional groups, and disconnects between curricula and practice existed. Further conceptual clarity is essential for a more informed discussion about interprofessional and multiprofessional education approaches in QI and explicit attention is needed to professional processes and tensions, to optimize the impact of education on practice.

Interprofessional Collaborating: A Model That Prepares Undergraduate Teachers and Social Workers for Interprofessional Practice in Schools

The Health Promoting School (HPS) premises its approach on interprofessional collaboration. Despite this, there are few studies into how Australian, Victorian social workers and teachers prepare for interprofessional collaboration within health promoting schools. There are few studies into how undergraduate social workers and teachers understand the HPS school setting and the role of social workers and teachers in promoting educational achievement and wellbeing within a HS school site. There are even fewer studies in how undergraduate social workers and teachers experience units of study delivered using interprofessional education (IPE) approaches.

Incorporating oral health care education in undergraduate nursing curricula - a systematic review

BackgroundThe recognised relationship between oral health and general health, the rapidly increasing older population worldwide, and changes in the type of oral health care older people require have raised concerns for policymakers and health professionals. Nurses play a leading role in holistic and interprofessional care that supports health and ageing. It is essential to understand their preparation for providing oral health care.Objective: To synthesise the evidence on nursing students’ attitudes towards, and knowledge of, oral healthcare, with a view to determining whether oral health education should be incorporated in nursing education.MethodsData sources: Three electronic databases - PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL.Study eligibility criteria, participants and interventions: Original studies addressing the research objective, written in English, published between 2008 and 2019, including students and educators in undergraduate nursing programs as participants, and conducted in Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development countries.Study appraisal and synthesis methods: Data extracted from identified studies were thematically analysed, and quality assessment was done using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool.ResultsFrom a pool of 567 articles, 11 met the eligibility criteria. Findings documented five important themes: 1.) nursing students’ limited oral health knowledge; 2.) their varying attitudes towards providing oral health care; 3.) the need for further oral health education in nursing curricula; 4.) available learning resources to promote oral health; and 5.) the value of an interprofessional education approach to promote oral health care in nursing programs.Limitations: The identified studies recruited small samples, used self-report questionnaires and were conducted primarily in the United States.ConclusionsThe adoption of an interprofessional education approach with a focus on providing effective oral health care, particularly for older people, needs to be integrated into regular nursing education, and practice. This may increase the interest and skills of nursing students in providing oral health care. However, more rigorous studies are required to confirm this. Nursing graduates skilled in providing oral health care and interprofessional practice have the potential to improve the oral and general health of older people.

An interprofessional experience in diabetes management for pharmacy and medical students

Background and purposeThe 2016 Standards of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education state that curricula must include opportunities for interprofessional education (IPE). This report describes a collaborative effort between a pharmacy program and a school of medicine to develop, implement, and evaluate an interprofessional workshop focused on collaborative disease management. Educational activity and settingA medical school course in diabetes management was identified as optimal for an IPE approach. One class session was designed to highlight the advantages of team-based care in diabetes management and describe the roles of members of an interprofessional healthcare team. Students were divided into groups to discuss cases and demonstrate diabetic device counseling. Students were surveyed before and after the IPE experience to examine their attitudes towards interprofessional learning. FindingsWe obtained matched pre and post-evaluations from 168 participants (138 medical students and 30 pharmacy students). Learner attitudes were positive overall, and improved from pre-test (M = 80.28, SD = 10.29) to post-test (M = 82.83, SD = 9.40, F = 14.92, df = 1, p < .001), suggesting more favorable attitudes to interprofessional learning after completing the class. Multivariate analysis indicated a significant main effect for learner profession, suggesting pharmacy students had more positive attitudes to interprofessinal learning both before and after the workshop. SummaryAdding an IPE dimension to an existing medical school course had a positive impact on student perceptions of interprofessional practice, particularly for the pharmacy students who could demonstrate the value of their role on a team for patient care.

Observing Inter-Professional Videos: Impact of Collaboration Between Physicians and Psychologists on Attitude and Knowledge Acquisition.

Background:Inter-professional collaboration (IPC) is an important prerequisite for successful patient care. Even though inter-professional education (IPE) is increasingly common in undergraduate medical education, few IPE approaches explicitly address the IPC among medical students and students of psychology. IPE videos can be used to give learners the opportunity to gather relevant knowledge from different professional perspectives. So far it has been unclear whether it is enough when the topic of the video itself is inter-professional or if it is necessary for experts from different professions explicitly to appear in the video.Methods:In an online experiment, medical students watched 1 of 2 videos about Parkinson’s disease (PD) and the care of PD patients. The information was either provided by protagonists from only 1 profession (ie, physicians; mono-professional condition) or provided by protagonists from 2 different professions (ie, physicians and a psychologist; inter-professional condition). Attitude toward inter-professional interaction and learning, evaluation of the entertaining and illustrative character of the video, attitude toward physicians and psychologists, importance of IPC, evaluation of psychological treatment support, and knowledge acquisition served as dependent variables.Results:The analysis was based on 140 participants (74 in the mono-, 66 in the inter-professional condition). We found that the inter-professional video was perceived to be more entertaining than the mono-professional video (t(138) = −2.227; P = .028; d = 0.38). The inter-professional video was also considered to be more illustrative (t(138) = −6.269; P < .001; d = 1.06). Moreover, participants improved their attitude toward physicians by watching the video (F(1,138) = 4.860, P < .001, η2p = 0.11), but they did not change their attitude toward psychologists (P = .146). Participants who watched the inter-professional video considered IPC to be more important than participants who watched the mono-professional video (t(138) = −7.954; P < .001; d = 1.354). Finally, the inter-professional video led to better performance in the knowledge test (t(138) = −2.285; P = .024; d = 0.04).Conclusion:Inter-professional videos showing explicitly the appearance of experts from different professions come along with several advantages. We discuss the implications of their application in educational practice.Trial registration:The study was pre-registered on the pre-registration platform AsPredicted (aspredicted.org) before we began data collection (registration number: #33143). The pre-registration document can be accessed via the following link: https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=gd5hd8.

Understanding Neurogenic Communication Disorders in a Collaborative Context: A Team-Based Interprofessional Education Approach for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Students

Purpose Hearing loss is underidentified and undertreated in individuals with neurogenic communication disorders. Interprofessional collaborative practice between audiologists and speech-language pa...

An Undergraduate Course Combining Interprofessional Education and Complementary Health Approaches Learning Objectives: Successful Integrative Learning that Improves Interest and Reduces Redundancy

Literature suggests interprofessional education (IPE) and education about complementary therapies for health sciences students may be effectively combined. A novel 30-hour, 10-week course for interprofessional undergraduate health sciences students combining IPE and complementary therapies learning objectives was developed and offered in 2012 (N = 71), 2013 (N = 120) and 2014 (N = 140). Pre-post mixed methods measurement occurred in three groups: one taking combined IPE-complementary therapies curriculum, and two control groups (one following non-specialized IPE curriculum, and one following combined IPE-continuing care curriculum). The students' attitudinal changes towards IPE and complementary therapies, and their comfort collaborating with students in other health sciences programs were measured using scales. Qualitative evaluation was conducted via content analysis of team-based reflective essays of their opinions towards what they learned about IPE and complementary therapies, and how it changed during the course. Quantitative results exhibited ceiling effects, revealing little change or difference between groups on all measures, with the exception of the Health Professional Collaborative Competency Perception Scale which indicated the students taking the IPE-complementary therapies course reported increased comfort collaborating in comparison with control groups. Qualitative results indicated students: increased their awareness and knowledge about complementary therapies, and were inspired to learn more, appreciated the need for collaboration and communication, desired to be more patient-centered, and wove concepts related to IPE and complementary therapies together. Combining IPE initiatives and basic complementary therapies education can save curricular time, and develop healthcare professionals who appear to be more ready to provide team-based, patient-centered care.

Suggestions for interprofessional educational courses from a students' perspective - a qualitative study.

Purpose: The significance of interprofessional education (IPE) for interprofessional collaboration (IPC) and thus optimal patient care is widely recognised. As a starting point for a needs-based IPE development, we conducted focus groups interviews with students of different health professions. We assessed experiences with IPE and IPC, ascertained resulting IPE needs, and discussed opportunities for curricular implementation, to meet long-term challenges to health care.Methods: Using semi-structured interview guides, we conducted five focus groups with altogether 18 trainees of different health professions and students of medicine and Interprofessional Health Care. We transcribed and analysed the data using qualitative content analysis.Results: Three main categories of IPE approaches emerged out of the analysis: “content”, “settings”, and “challenges”. Contents as suggested by focus group participants are sessions about basic knowledge, practical skills, communication and interprofessional collaboration. The settings should comprise different forms and methods of teaching and didactic designs. As challenges, participants named unfamiliarity, teacher demands, differences in needs, diverging curriculum structures, heterogeneous prior knowledge, and aspects of timing.Conclusion: Based on their prior experiences with IPC and IPE in other contexts, participants generated diverse ideas for new interprofessional courses and potential application in other IPC/IPE settings. This allows to integrate new IPE approaches into curriculum development.

An Interprofessional Education Pilot Program on Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Improves Student Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes

BackgroundRecent efforts to prepare healthcare professionals to care for patients/clients with substance use problems have incorporated SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) into graduate education programs. No research has examined the benefits and methods of an SBIRT interprofessional education approach for behavioral health graduate students and medical residents. This pilot study examined the implementation of an interprofessional curriculum on SBIRT to improve attitudes, abilities, skills, and knowledge of learners planned by faculty from multiple professions at a state university.MethodsFaculty in Counseling, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Nursing and Social Work departments collaborated to develop an interprofessional curriculum delivered through a small-group and active learning approach. Seventy-one residents and graduate students participated. Pre- and post-training surveys measured self-perceived attitudes, abilities, and skills along with objectively measured knowledge. Analysis examined pre- to post-training changes in scores.ResultsPre-training surveys yielded an 89% response rate; post-training, 85%. Self-perceived attitudes did not change significantly, except a 20% increase in how rewarded learners felt while working with patients/clients with alcohol/drug use disorders (P &lt; .01). Compared to baseline, there was a statistically significant increase in all items of self-perceived ability (P&lt;.01) and all items of self-perceived communication skills (P&lt;=.04). Knowledge mean scores also increased significantly (P &lt; .001) across both primary care and behavioral health learner groups.ConclusionsInterprofessional training in SBIRT produced improvements in ability, skills, knowledge, and some attitudes. Such programs may inform providers who care for patients/clients with substance use problems, thus improving their competence and personal experience.

Toward a system where workforce planning and interprofessional practice and education are designed around patients and populations not professions

ABSTRACTTraditional workforce planning methodologies and interprofessional education (IPE) approaches will not address the significant challenges facing health care systems seeking to integrate services, eliminate waste and meet rising demand within fixed or shrinking budgets. This article describes how New Zealand’s workforce planning approach could be used as a model by other countries to move toward needs-based, interprofessional workforce planning. Such an approach requires a paradigm shift to reframe health workforce planning away from a focus on shortages toward assessing how to more effectively deploy and retrain the existing workforce; away from silo-based workforce projection models toward methodologies that recognize professions’ overlapping scopes of practice; and away from a focus on traditional health professions toward including both health and social care workers. We propose that IPE must develop new models of learning that are delivered in the context of practice. This will require a shift from today’s predominant focus on preparing students in the pipeline to be collaboration-ready to designing clinical practice environments that support continuous learning that benefits not just learners, but patients, populations, and providers as well. We highlight the need for improved data and methods to evaluate IPE and call for better collaboration between health workforce planners and IPE stakeholders.

A Mixed-Methods Approach to Humanistic Interprofessional Faculty Development.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Mentoring and Professionalism in Training (MAP-IT) program, a longitudinal, interprofessional faculty development curriculum designed to enhance clinicians' humanistic mentoring skills, specifically nurses and physicians. During 2014 to 2016, two consecutive cohorts of nurses and physicians completed the MAP-IT program. Participants included 169 high potential mentors (HPMs) and 61 facilitator leaders. Each 10-month program consisted of small group work, experiential learning, and critical reflection aimed at enhancing humanistic mentoring skills. Throughout the program, facilitator leaders served as mentors for the HPMs. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to measure changes in skill levels specific to humanistic teaching practices, as well as overall evaluation of the program's curriculum and logistics. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, descriptive statistics, and Fisher exact test, as appropriate. Qualitative data assessing the overall impact and applicability of the program to the clinical setting were analyzed using content analysis methodology. Across cohorts, HPMs demonstrated significant increases in perceptions of humanistic teaching skills. During objective structured teaching simulations, significant increases were also found in HPMs' self-reported mentoring skills and their skills as rated by a standardized RN/MD. Qualitative analyses revealed themes of the program to be skill development and application, mentorship, humanism, mindfulness, self-care, and acknowledgment of overlapping interprofessional roles. Utilizing an interprofessional education approach, the MAP-IT program was determined to be a feasible strategy to positively impact the personal and professional development of nurses and physicians.

An interprofessional education approach to fall prevention: preparing members of the interprofessional healthcare team to implement STEADI into practice

ABSTRACTAn aging population benefits from healthcare providers trained in the care of older adults. Interprofessional education (IPE) and service-learning activities focused on geriatric conditions like falls may address this need. A fall prevention IPE activity using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths & Injuries (STEADI) initiative was implemented to prepare health sciences students to manage older adult falls. Students (N = 31) and faculty (N = 10) from five health sciences programs and local older adults (N = 27) participated. Students were trained in STEADI and conducted a fall risk screening, assessment, and intervention activity with older adults using STEADI tools. We observed a statistically significant improvement in student knowledge of fall prevention and STEADI as assessed by pre and postactivity measures. Student surveys indicated improved understanding of the roles and responsibilities of participating disciplines, related to management of falls in older adults. The CDC’s STEADI initiative may provide an effective framework and resources for fall prevention IPE activities and geriatric health sciences education.

An examination of the perceived impact of a continuing interprofessional education experience on opiate prescribing practices

ABSTRACTChronic pain is increasingly recognized as a public health problem. We assessed the effectiveness of a multi-modal, interprofessional educational approach aimed at empowering healthcare professionals to make deliberative changes, especially in opiate prescribing practices. Education activities included enduring webcasts, regional interprofessional roundtable events, and state-level conference presentations within targeted Kentucky and West Virginia regions of the United States. Over 1,000 participants accessed the various activities. For the live events, the largest groups reached included nurses (38.1%), nurse practitioners (31.2%), and physicians (22.1%). In addition to our reach, higher levels of educational effectiveness were measured, specifically, learner’s intentions to change practice patterns, confidence in meeting patient’s needs, and knowledge of pain management guidelines. The majority of the conference (58%) and roundtable (69%) participants stated they intend to make a practice change in one or more areas of chronic pain patient management in post-event evaluation. Differences in pre- and post-activity responses on the measures of confidence and knowledge, with additional comparison to a control population who were not in attendance, were analyzed using non-parametric tests of significance. While neither activity produced significant changes in confidence from pre-activity, participants were more confident post-activity than their control group peers. There were significant changes in knowledge for both live event and webcast participants. Impactful chronic pain continuing the education that emphasizes collaborative care is greatly needed; these results show that the approaches taken here can impact learner’s knowledge and confidence, and hold potential for creating change in how opioid prescribing is managed.

Interprofessional Education: An Approach to Improve Healthcare Outcomes

Interprofessional education (IPE) approach allows learners from different health professions viz. - medical, dental, nursing, physiotherapy, psychotherapy, psychology etc., learn from, learn with, and learn about, each other. The scope of learning depends upon the requirements and curriculum. Interprofessional education can help in creating a workforce that learns to perform collaborative practice thereby ensuring better health-care outcomes. Medical educators' and practitioners' understanding about teaching, learning, and assessment of IPE is rudimentary. Strategies to incorporate IPE in regular curricula need to be debated and barriers associated with its implementation require to be identified. This review highlights the teaching-learning and assessment tools for IPE and discusses potential challenges in its implementation.

Interprofessional education as a building block for collaborative and integrated eating disorder services

Introduction: (comprising context and problem statement) Eating disorders (EDs) are the most challenging of all mental health conditions to treat with high mortality, morbidity and chronic course (NIMH, 2015). Fast access and evidence based treatment has been shown to improve outcomes substantially (AACAP, 2015). Conversely, a lack of interprofessional collaboration has been associated with poor outcomes and patient safety concerns in eating disorders including death (RCPsych, 2012). Most postgraduate training for clinicians is unidisciplinary or multidisciplinary including training in eating disorders. Short description of practice change implemented: Five interprofessional education (IPE) projects for eating disorder clinicians were undertaken as part of the HSE National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorders and these were formally evaluated at different levels : knowledge, roles, satisfaction, fidelity to checklists, change in clinical practice, barriers, opportunities and feasibility of the IPE approach. These projects included a pilot (A) and follow up (B) IPE project for mental health eating disorder clinicians (N = 16 and 45); a national Family Based Therapy training initiative (C) (N= 72); a national CBT- E training initiative (N = 63) (D); a joint acute paediatric and psychiatry training event (E)(N = 45). Aim and theory of change: The aim was to establish whether an IPE approach would enable knowledge translation, increased activity (access), attitudinal and behavioural change and which approaches were most effective. In 2010, the World Health Organisation strongly endorsed collaborative care as the solution to increasing population and longevity needs in the face of depleted healthcare services and staffing (WHO, 2010). WHO placed interprofessional education at the heart of such collaborative care. However, IPE has been poorly for eating disorder services. In view of the challenges of different settings and professionals, access and outcomes, this is a key area to explore when delivering a national clinical programme. Targeted population and stakeholders: Mental Health and acute hospital clinicians working with patients with eating disorders across the Irish public (HSE) health system. Timeline: Feb 2014- March 2016 Highlights: (innovation, Impact and outcomes) In terms of innovation, both the pilot project and joint paediatric projects took an adult learning practice based approach using clinical dilemma and vignettes. They were highly endorsed by clinicians with impact on practice and confidence. The CBT-E and FBT models used a formal multidisciplinary training, followed by an IPE supervision approach. Overall impact included increased knowledge about each others roles, clinical confidence and behavioural changes. Local ED group membership enhanced this impact. Challenges to implementation included lack of ED cases or team colleague and completing clinical demands. Comments on sustainability: Interprofessional and local ownership/ delivery enhanced both acceptability and sustainability of these eating disorder training programmes Comments on transferability: With national core curricula and resources, local special interest groups would be able to replicate these IPE projects. Key is that leadership, coaching and support is provided by the original developers, and that staff are inteprofessional, skilled in delivering in a variety of learning formats, and have expertise in eating disorders.