Educators and learners volunteering to facilitate and/or participate in interprofessional education (IPE) may receive no formal recognition for their additional involvement, challenging sustainability and efficacy of activities. However, increasing evidence indicates that interprofessional collaboration is imperative to providing safe, timely, and equitable healthcare, with accreditation requirements supporting integration of IPE across health professions curricula. Faculty facilitators must be knowledgeable about and able to model the core interprofessional competencies in administering IPE, while students must be prepared to practice collaboratively upon graduation. Although IPE is required by many professions’ accreditation guidelines, faculty participation in IPE is often unrecognized in workload calculations, compensation, and promotion and tenure processes. Likewise, student participation in extracurricular IPE is commonly unrewarded. This leaves even faculty and student IPE champions with little motivation for continuous engagement. However, extrinsic motivators like formal recognition and additional course credit have positive impacts on motivation, self-esteem, teaching practices, and student outcomes.
This presentation will describe how the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice & Education developed faculty and student recognition systems to formally recognize IPE participation and achievement of collaborative competencies; provide extrinsic motivation for participation; and grow a pipeline of skilled facilitators and clinicians to meet educational and practice needs. For faculty, staff, and clinicians, this entailed calculating data-driven recognition quartiles, with acknowledgement of contributions of time and expertise at an annual ceremony, along with a letter to their supervisor recognizing their vital contributions. For students, this involved the creation of a Certificate of Excellence in Interprofessional Collaborative Practice for completion of robust research, educational, or clinical projects beyond interprofessional curricular requirements. This session will describe strategies used to formally recognize faculty and student participation in interprofessional activities to grow and sustain programming and competencies.
This talk will address theme 5 and describe one center’s strategies for recognizing faculty and student leadership and excellence in IPE, with the goal of developing sustainable interprofessional collaborative practice champions. Attendees will gain knowledge of the importance of extrinsic motivators and formal recognition for faculty and students in sustaining IPE, and approaches for implementing faculty and student recognition for extra- and co-curricular involvement in IPE.
