Preparing Future Health Professionals for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Part 2: The Student Experience

Responding to increasing calls for change in systems of care delivery and revisions in the way health professionals are educated, academic programs across the health professions, including speech-language pathology, are placing increased emphasis on interprofessional collaborative practice and interprofessional education. This article provides a foundation for understanding these changes and what is driving them. Using an example from one academic program, it provides a view of the shifting student experience and discusses implications for speech-language pathologists serving as educators and supervisors in external placements. The article concludes with suggestions for integrating competencies for collaborative practice into one's clinical teaching and maximizing effectiveness in fostering student readiness for practice in the complex medical and education environments in which speech-language pathologists practice.