A model of interprofessional informatics education

An emphasis on patient safety and an administrative mandate to have information systems in place in most health care agencies in the USA by 2014 has put pressure on nursing informatics programs to increase the number of graduates. At the same time a need for change in health professions education was emphasized at an educational summit sponsored by the Institute of Medicine. Interprofessional education (IPE) will help to provide needed educational reform in informatics and is defined as planned occasions when two or more professions learn from each other and about each other in a structured manner. This paper discusses an evolving interprofessional (IPE) model of informatics education that has been developed at the University of Utah. Because of interprofessional collaboration, faculty, students, and support staff from both the medical and nursing informatics programs moved into a suite on the fifth floor of a state-of-art technology-rich health sciences education building. The co-located space has enabled the informatics programs to increase activities that promote interprofessional education.