A Framework for Integrating Interprofessional Education Curriculum in the Health Sciences

Context: Traditionally, the structures of health professional education in Canada and elsewhere have been largely based on "silos" in which health professionals are educated in relative isolation to one another. The curriculum content and structure has followed strict disciplinary lines. Recent commissions, committees and policy documents in Canada have identified the importance of reshaping educational preparation and the professional training of health care professionals (Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, 2002; Health Council of Canada, 2005). Objectives: This brief communication describes an interprofessional curricular approach that combines characteristics of Barr et al.'s (2005) extracurricular and crossbar models of interprofessional education curriculum. Methods: An interprofessional education curriculum that combines principles of an integrative, continuous, early-to-late and blended learning approach. Discussion: The curricular approach supports exposing students to interprofessional education at an early stage in their training and then to continue with regular reinforcement. Another guiding principle is that interprofessional education is integrative rather than supplementary to the existing core curriculum. Early evaluation results suggest favourable satisfaction amongst students and faculty as well as significant effect on attitudes toward interprofessional teamwork and education. An ongoing evaluation is continuing based upon the various levels of Freeth et al.'s (2002) interprofessional education evaluation framework.