Educating interprofessional learners for quality, safety and systems improvement

Most health professionals in training, as well as those in practice, lack the knowledge and skills they need to play an effective role in systems improvement. Until very recently, these competencies were not included in formal (or informal) educational curricula. Interprofessional collaboration - another core competency needed for successful systems improvement - is also inadequately taught and learned. Achieving Competence Today (ACT) was designed as a new model for interprofessional education for quality, safety and health systems improvement. The core of ACT is a four-module active learning course during which learners from different disciplines work together to develop a Quality Improvement Project to address a quality or safety problem in their own practice system. In this paper we describe the ACT program and curriculum model, discuss our strategies for maximizing ACT's interprofessional potential, and make recommendations for the future.