Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC) involves “working together with one or more members of the health team who each make a unique contribution to achieving a common goal, enhancing the benefit for patients. It is a process for communication and decision making that enables the separate and shared knowledge and skills of different care providers to synergistically influence the care provided through changed attitudes and behaviors, all the while emphasizing patient-centered goals and values.” (Health Canada, 2010)

Interprofessional education (IPE) occurs when “students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.” (WHO, 2010)

After almost 50 years of enquiry, the World Health Organization and its partners acknowledge that there is sufficient evidence to indicate that effective interprofessional education enables effective collaborative practice, which in turn optimizes health-services, strengthens health systems and improves health outcomes.

The National Interprofessional Competency Framework, developed by the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (www.cihc.ca), on which the IPC on the Run Modules are based, provides an integrative approach to describing the competencies required for effective interprofessional collaboration. Six competency domains highlight the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that shape the judgments essential for interprofessional collaborative practice.  The six competency domains are:

1. Interprofessional communication
2. Patient/client/family/community-centred care
3. Role clarification
4. Team functioning
5. Collaborative leadership
6. Interprofessional conflict resolution

View the framework document.