Interprofessional education tracks: One schools response to common IPE barriers

Implementing meaningful interprofessional education (IPE) experiences into the curriculum often requires overcoming barriers and challenges. To overcome these challenges on a non-medical center campus, school of pharmacy IPE faculty implemented a longitudinal, three-semester, multi-track series. The goals of forming a multi-track series were: (1) to overcome the pharmacy class size compared to the other available disciplines, (2) to utilize disciplines available on a liberal arts campus, and (3) to address varying academic calendars between disciplines.

In 2018, the IPE course series was developed and imbedded within the first- and second-year, required, one-credit hour IPE courses. Tracks included community wellness involving accelerated bachelor of science in nursing students on the liberal arts campus, health law involving juris doctorate candidates on the liberal arts campus, and quality management involving masters of science in nursing administration and doctor of medicine students on the medical campus. Each pharmacy student was assigned a track spring semester of the first year based on preference.

Creation of the track series successfully overcame barriers for IPE implementation. The use of multiple partners, smaller cohorts, and virtual technology allowed faculty greater flexibility, smaller student cohorts, and group autonomy to determine best time and method for meetings, assignment completion, and events.

Utilization of a non-traditional course structure allowed for creative solutions to common barriers related to implementation of IPE on a liberal arts campus. This concept can be applied to a wide variety of curriculums to implement meaningful interprofessional experiences.