Interprofessional education of the new health practitioner

This is a report of a survey of the interprofessional education activities included in 54 physician's assistant and 60 nurse practitioner programs. In a majority of such new health practitioner programs, the importance of interprofessional education as a part of training for team health care delivery has been recognized, and some structured interprofessional activity has been provided. A variety of methods are being used to achieve the objectives of effective team delivery of primary health care, including the mixing of students in both classroom and clinical settings and the inclusion of specific courses on role and professional identity. Seventy percent of physician's assistant students and 38 percent of nurse practitioner students in the programs included in the study have at least one classroom activity shared with another health profession group, most commonly medical students. Only a surprisingly small percentage of programs were involved in any evaluation of their interprofessional activities. In spite of the primary care orientation of new health practitioner programs, less than 40 percent offer clinical experience on a health team in a primary care setting.