The Continuum of Health Professions

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Interprofessional Collaboration
• Healthcare Policy

Background:

• The proliferation of health care professions with overlapping scopes of practice creates challenges for students, patients, and policymakers.
• Existing frameworks lack a methodical approach for comparing the diverse landscape of health care professions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel method for comparing health care professions.
• To introduce a bidirectional health professions continuum for enhanced understanding and comparison.

Main Methods:

• Experimental courses were developed and delivered at two community colleges between 2009 and 2012.
• The courses focused on creating and validating a new comparative framework for health care professions.

Main Results:

• A novel bidirectional health professions continuum was successfully developed and validated.
• The continuum provides a methodical basis for comparing diverse health care professions.

Conclusions:

• The bidirectional health professions continuum offers significant value for career selection by students.
• It can motivate interprofessional collaboration among providers and assist patients in selecting healthcare providers.
• The continuum aids policymakers in understanding and regulating the complex field of health care professions.