Above and beyond interprofessional learning
Reviewed by Anna Volkmer

There has been a significant focus on interprofessional education for all health professionals over recent years. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association became a member of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) competencies (in America) in 2016. These competencies provide four core competencies that define the scope of interprofessional practice. In order to ensure that these would be integrated within the required uniprofessional standards the authors of this article from the MGH Institute of Health professions in Massachusetts describe how their institution developed a framework to meet this need. The Communication Sciences and Disorders programme then held a series of focus groups with faculty, clinicians, clinical leaders and students and conducted a rigorous literature review to identify six core competencies for professional practice. This included the IPEC domains and an additional three areas including clinical decision making, systems-based practice and leadership. The authors then provide examples of collaboration between occupational therapy and speech and language therapy students in an innovative intensive aphasia programme and joint research with physiotherapy to develop and validate aphasia friendly assessment tools. The authors emphasise that teaching collaborative practice can change the way future generations of healthcare providers view and reshape healthcare provision. Being prepared for change in healthcare provision is relevant to graduates planning to work in the UK National Health System. Looking overseas to alternative models may be useful for educators who are responsible for preparing the next generation.

Preparing future health professionals for interprofessional collaborative practice part 1: the context for learning.
Portney L, Johnson A F, Knab M.
SEMINARS IN SPEECH AND LANGUAGE
2017;38(5):335-41.