Interprofessional education: more is needed.

In many respects it is amazing how far we have traveled since the 2003 Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality report by the Institute of Medicine made the recommendation for much needed reform in health professions education focusing on an outcome-based educational system to prepare health care professionals to meet the needs for patients in a changing health care system. (1) This report emphasized an essential need for all health care profession educational programs to prepare practitioners to provide patient-centered care in an interdisciplinary team using evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches, and informatics ("the 5 core competencies" as they quickly became known to all). This call to action for educators and accrediting bodies was loudly heard across all the health professions. Moreover, the 2011 Interprofessional Education Collaborative report titled the "Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice" further modified and introduced us to concept of interprofessionality as the foundation of the 4 core interprofessional competency domains, provided the associated specific competencies, and highlighted the dynamic relationship between interprofessional education with practice needs and improvements. (2) These 4 interprofessional competency domains, linking back to the 5 core competencies introduced in 2003, and the identified specific competencies, learning outcomes and activities provided pharmacy educators with the systematic framework to revise and shape the PharmD curriculum enabling pharmacy graduates with the knowledge, skills, and attitude/values to be a successful and contributing member of the health care team. One cannot open any health profession educational journal, regardless of discipline, without a paper highlighting the importance of interprofessional patient-centered practice in contemporary health care and discussing how to promote interprofessional education in health profession colleges and schools. Yet, despite the multitude of papers, reports, conferences, workshops, summits, etc, and mandates from the respective accrediting bodies, have we as health profession educators and administrators really moved towards this desired goal? Successful implementation of true reform promoting interprofessional education across all health professional programs will only result as a function of a fully integrated grass-roots faculty-driven approach, combined with top-down administrative support and leadership. If we are to truly embrace the importance of the 4 interprofessional competency domains as core competencies, does this not require senior leadership and faculty members in health professions colleges/schools to ensure that every student who graduates from any university health profession curriculum demonstrate these competencies? This fundamental requirement does not seem any different from any undergraduate degree program where it is considered essential to demonstrate a graduate's competency in the general education core competencies mandated by the institution, state, or regional accrediting body. All who have worked at a university certainly can attest to the resources (financial, time, and personnel) invested in determining whether graduates achieved the mandated general education competencies. Likewise, the need to educate students in the 4 interprofessional competency domains and assessment of a graduate's learning in these areas will require the same investment of resources in personnel, time, and money. If interprofessional education is truly a core mission of universities and colleges/schools of pharmacy, should it not be reflected in the financial resources available to support this core mission by a significant investment by the university or by identifying unique models or approaches to support this core mission? Support for interprofessional education cannot be a piecemeal effort in individual colleges and schools, but rather it must be a concerted effort that is supported centrally by the university. …