October 6, 2006 Source: :
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/061006-2599.asp Office of interprofessional
education to enhance interdisciplinary
learning Lessons in
co-operation
Oct 6/06
by Michah Rynor (about) (email) The opening of the University of Toronto office of interprofessional
education (IPE) Sept. 13 signalled a commitment to enhancing learning
through interdisciplinary action, one of the key goals of U of T’s academic
plan. Through IPE, students from nine health sciences-and social work-related
programs and faculties will have the benefit of courses that bring them
together and allow them to understand each other’s perspectives. By 2009,
IPE courses will be mandatory in the curricula of all of them: pharmacy,
dentistry, medicine, nursing, social work, speech-language pathology,
occupational therapy, rehabilitation therapy and physical education &
health. The IPE office, headed by Professor Ivy Oandasan of family and community
medicine, supports these nine programs and faculties. Its staff is tasked
with developing interprofessional courses for faculty and students and
hosting regular student IPE events supported by the IPHSA, the
Interprofessional Healthcare Students Association. The end result will be
that the students from various disciplines learn to work together instead of
independently, with the doctor understanding the importance of the
registered nurse, the dentist learning about the challenges facing the
chiropractor, the pharmacist better understanding the environment of the
radiologist and so on. And with all of this co-operation, it’s hoped that the patient will benefit
from an improved quality of care. The basic premise of IPE is to provide
patient- centred care. "This represents an important initiative among the health deans," said
Professor Catharine Whiteside, vice-provost (relations with health care
institutions) and dean of the Faculty of Medicine, during the recent IPE
launch. "We believe this is the future of health care and we’re gearing up
to enhance all of our health professional curricula through this project
along with our partners, university-affiliated hospitals and clinical
teaching institutions. Through these strong partnerships with our related hospitals we will become
not only national leaders but be internationally recognized in this area of
educational innovation and scholarship." Janet Mason, assistant deputy minister, training, colleges and universities,
gave IPE a provincial thumbs-up. "The ministry has put a significant
emphasis on healthcare resources," she said, "and interprofessional
education is really a key component of that. To make health care sustainable
and to meet patient needs everyone recognizes that this is critical." Professor David Mock, dean of dentistry, agreed that it is imperative that
students work with other medical practitioners outside their own
disciplines. "The day of the isolated dentist working on a second-floor office above a
grocery store is gone," he said. "The nature of disease and health care now
requires them to work with, communicate with and be able to interact with
all the other healthcare professionals."
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