A primary objective of the University of Michigan (U-M) Center for Interprofessional Education (IPE) is to equip graduates with the skills and competencies necessary to engage effectively with interprofessional teams, with the goal of improving quality of health and healthcare to patients, families, and communities. To advance this goal, the IPE Curriculum Committee launched a multi-phased initiative to define and implement a comprehensive IPE framework. This initiative focused on identifying necessary competencies and establishing a core curriculum for all relevant health professional students.
The project began with defining the IPE core curriculum, a collection of IPE offerings that are recommended for all or most relevant students across health science schools in order to provide learners with a foundational understanding of interprofessional collaboration and practice, and allow them to be prepared to effectively participate in entry-level experiential IPE. Guided by the phases of Vision, Outcomes, Alignment, Adjustment, and Assessment, a structured core IPE curriculum and competency framework were developed.
The Vision phase established a collective understanding of the purpose and value of the IPE core curriculum, acknowledging both commonalities and differences among healthcare disciplines. The Outcomes phase involved reviewing the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) sub-competencies and selecting a standard set to represent our intended educational outcomes. Emphasizing U-M’s commitment to intercultural humility, additional sub-competencies related to intercultural humility were developed, resulting in a total of 13 sub-competencies across the learning domains of skills, attitudes, and knowledge.
The Alignment phase entailed mapping the defined sub-competencies to the existing core curriculum and identifying gaps and redundancies. We are currently in the Adjustment phase where we are focusing on refining the core curriculum to ensure comprehensive competency development. In the Assessment phase we will determine effective assessment methods and tools for evaluation.
This initiative offers a clear framework for preparing health professions students for collaborative practice environments by delineating the competencies that all relevant learners will attain through the IPE core curriculum. Additionally, this initiative has enabled the Center for IPE to identify opportunities for curriculum development, optimize resource allocation for introductory and reinforcement-level IPE, and advance the mission of promoting interprofessional education.
