Developing interprofessional education: putting theory into practice

Editor s’ note: The lead author of this toolbox article was the recipient of The Clinical Teacher travelling fellowship award, which he undertook on the Gold Coast in Australia with Griffi th University School of Medicine. Despite its now long history, interprofessional education (IPE) is still not a routine component of health professional education. Although there are challenges when introducing IPE, as noted here, these may be overcome with careful planning and consideration of the learning outcomes for all of the students involved. Using Griffi th ’ s three-phase interprofessional curriculum as an example, the authors offer a practical guide to implementation as well as the rationale for IPE. The concept of ‘CAIPE compliance’ is an interesting one, where CAIPE is the Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education and compliance relates to the threepreposition defi nition of IPE: with, from and about. Students move from knowledge building to simulation, and then to working in clinical situations, although the authors do admit that clinical experience is diffi cult given the logistics .