Trial of Interprofessional Education for Effective IPW

To work collaboratively in healthcare practice, health professionals should learn not only the competencies of their own specialties but also those of other professions so as to promote effective interprofessional work (IPW), thus optimizing patient/client outcomes. For this reason interprofessional education (IPE) is urgently needed. Since the establishment of Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) in 1987, many IPE programs have been developed and implemented worldwide. Currently, our Japan Society for Instructional Systems in Healthcare (JSISH) IPE program project team is conducting a study to develop an effective and versatile IPE program according to the framework of instructional design (ID). The main categories of learning goals of our program are intellectual skills and attitudes among Gagne's five categories. Therefore we designed our program to start from the drama (skit or video) of a bad example of IPW for learners to see and discuss the barriers of interprofessional collaboration. The drama of IPW seems to enhance attention and relevance for learners; both of which are components of the ARCS model. We expect every health professional including pharmacists to learn about IPW competencies through participating in our IPE program, enabling us further to pursue the ideal patient/client/family-centered care together.