Health Professional Perspectives about the Future of Clinical Education: An ASAHP Clinical Education Committee Report

In 2018, the Clinical Education Task Force (CETF) of ASAHP presented five recommendations to address clinical education needs. In 2019, the ASAHP Interprofessional Education Task Force (IPTF) established a regional summit for academic and industry constituents to improve health professional education and training. This article describes the steps taken to render a one-day St. Louis regional summit to receive stakeholder feedback on the nationally published recommendations for clinical education. The electronic survey was distributed to potential summit attendees about the CETF recommendations. Data categories captured included demographic details and questions about priorities, use, and engagement with the recommendations, and one open-ended question for each of the recommendations invited respondents to provide feedback. There were 349 respondents: 34% clinical preceptors/coordinators/directors, 31% academic program faculty, and 18% administrators. Common themes included the establishment of common goals between academic programs and healthcare organizations for partnership building, better recognition of the value of interprofessional collaborative practice, and technology as vital to the evolution of the healthcare system. Future directions should include regional summit meetings to address the implementation of the CETF recommendations relative to regional and localized challenges. Consensus-building efforts should address the diversity in responses relative to interprofessional collaborative efforts and clinical education research.