An international partnership focussed on interprofessional education (IPE) has been strengthened thanks to support from UQ’s Global Strategy and Partnerships Seed Funding Scheme.
The Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences Director of Interprofessional Education Associate Professor Neil Cottrell, and the UQ School of Health and Rehabilitation Science’s Dr Anne Hill and Teresa Quinlan, travelled to Indianapolis for the biennial Collaborating Across Borders Conference.
At the conference they jointly facilitated a workshop with colleagues and collaborators from University of Toronto’s Centre for Interprofessional Education (CIPE) titled ‘Crossroads and oceans: Development and sustainability of cross-institutional partnerships for advancing IPE’.
“In the workshop we detailed the development of our collaboration with CIPE over the last few years,” Dr Cottrell said.
“Attending the conference provided many ideas for the development of our own interprofessional collaborative curriculum for students and training for staff.
“It also reinforced the areas we are advanced in and those areas we need to further develop.”
After the conference, the collaboration with CIPE was cultivated with site visits and events at the University of Toronto.
“The CIPE created a comprehensive two-day itinerary full of meetings with their clinical partners and simulation clinical educators,” Dr Cottrell said.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to meet with staff in the CIPE and their colleagues based in the hospitals where students are placed and the interprofessional education curriculum delivered.
“Everyone we met was extremely generous in sharing their experiences and provided many insights that we are now considering in the development of our own curriculum here at UQ.”
On the final day in Canada, the UQ contingent jointly facilitated a Community of Practice with their CIPE colleagues, attended by 39 practitioners.
“We held a joint panel on our learnings from the Collaborating Across Borders Conference and then discussed IPE curriculum,” Dr Cottrell said.
“The UQ delegation shared our learnings from our first year core course for health students, HLTH1000 – Professions, People and Healthcare, which has just completed its second iteration, along with our insights into simulation in IPE and student-led IPE clinics.
“Collaborating internationally and sharing expertise means we can provide an outstanding education experience for our students that prepares them for the challenges of working with people with complex and chronic diseases.”
After the Community of Practice, a UQ Alumni event was held at the University of Toronto for nine UQ alumni representing Physiotherapy and Speech Pathology.
