Interprofessional Competencies in Integrative Primary Healthcare

Area of Science:

• Integrative Healthcare
• Primary Care Education
• Interprofessional Collaboration

Background:

• The National Center for Integrative Primary Healthcare (NCIPH) was established in 2014 to advance integrative healthcare (IH).
• A key objective is to create standardized IH competencies for primary care training and practice.
• This initiative aims to integrate IH into the core of primary care education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report on the development of a core set of integrative healthcare competencies for primary care disciplines.
• To describe the collaborative process used to define 10 meta-competencies.
• To outline the initial assessment of barriers and facilitators to competency adoption.

Main Methods:

• A diverse interprofessional team (nursing, medicine, pharmacy, public health, acupuncture, naturopathy, chiropractic, nutrition, behavioral medicine) collaborated.
• A consensus-based process was employed to develop 10 meta-competencies.
• Discipline-specific sub-competencies were defined, and potential adoption barriers/facilitators were assessed.

Main Results:

• Ten core integrative healthcare meta-competencies were developed through an interprofessional collaborative process.
• Discipline-specific sub-competencies are being created for various primary care professions.
• Initial assessments identified potential barriers and facilitators for adopting these competencies.

Conclusions:

• The developed competencies provide a foundation for a 45-hour online curriculum for primary care training.
• The NCIPH curriculum is set to be piloted in 2016, with revisions planned for wider implementation.
• This effort represents a significant step towards standardizing and integrating IH into primary care.