ABSTRACT
Preparing the best candidates for positions that are increasingly privileging knowledge of, and engagement with, broad issues relating to healthcare quality necessitates a paradigm shift. As best practices in the healthcare field move towards a patient-centered approach to client care, universities are realizing the limitations of delivering programs based on a mono-discipline model. Historically, the health professions have educated their students in specific ways that prepared them for the realities of the work environment; however, healthcare teams today are increasingly expected to work together and to communicate across disciplines. To address these changing needs, universities and hospitals have begun to offer education and training opportunities that seek to provide a holistic approach to healthcare. There are numerous benefits to this kind of interprofessional approach. For example, by gaining exposure to other disciplines prior to practicing as healthcare professionals, the new generation of learners will be able to anticipate and better respond to systemic risks to a patient’s safety and communicate them more effectively as members of a healthcare team. The “learn one, see one, do one” mentality, that has been transmitted to generations of learners, is a cycle that needs to be broken. Some universities have decided that their curriculum is out of date, and, in an effort to provide quality education, they have opted to redesign their programs from the ground up. An effective way to establish a new program or institutional curriculum is to work with educational developers to combine best practice with best teaching techniques. Likewise, mapping the curriculum ensures that it is not missing vital components and that it appropriately supports the framework of multidisciplinary interprofessional education.
