A Description of the Integration of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Competencies in the First 100 Weeks of Medical Student Education

Abstract

Background and Introduction

The practice of medicine, the delivery of health care, and medical school curricula have evolved significantly over the past 100 years. Current societal expectations are that our health care systems offer safe, evidence-based, patient-centered care, provided by cohesive, interprofessional teams within systems that limit error, ensure quality, and maximize benefits. The need to transform medical education to include interprofessional educational opportunities that ensure health professionals learn to work collaboratively is well recognized. The basic sciences and medical knowledge must be integrated with clinical practice. The four newly created goals for medical education include standardization of learning outcomes and individualization of the learning process, integration of formal knowledge and clinical experience, development of habits of inquiry and innovation, and focus on professional identity formation. In the development of our new Hofstra North Shore School of Medicine’s (HSOM) curricula, these goals were considered and are evident throughout the interprofessional educational experiences.

Purpose

We describe our first efforts, as a new medical school, to design and implement an Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC)-centered curricular experience to ensure they are embedded early and often throughout the first 100 weeks. We use a deliberate practice approach to prepare our students for the interprofessional teams they will join as part of their clinical clerkships and acting internships in the second 100 weeks.

Analysis

We reassessed the HSOM core competencies, educational program objectives (EPOs), and individual course learning objectives (LOs) to determine if any curricular gaps in the IPEC core competencies were exposed. We focused particular attention on those courses that have already been conducted during the first 2 years of our school’s existence.

Conclusion

Interprofessional educational experiences are woven throughout the first 100 weeks of the HSOM curriculum. As the architects of a new medical school, the deans, administration, and faculty of the HSOM embraced the imperative to reform our contemporary models for health professions education.