ABSTRACT
The distinctive feature of interprofessional education, as noted by A. Alsop and C. Vigars, is its focus on the development of skills for interacting with members of other professions. The interprofessional course the authors have developed is a four-week intensive course that prepares senior students in the health professions to respond effectively as individuals and members of a team to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its consequences, both biological and social. A central component of the model is the collaborative process. The key phases of this process are assessing, building, managing and evaluating. One reason for providing interprofessional education in relation to HIV/AIDS prevention and care is that effective intervention with respect to this chronic, complex, infectious disease requires collaboration among an array of professionals, community members and people with HIV/AIDS. Partnerships are essential to the provision of classroom and clinical learning experiences in interprofessional education and to succeed, require that ways of working together be delineated.
