Inter-Professional Education, Inter-Professional Practice and Team Science: Learning Together; Working Together

Inter-professional education (IPE) takes place when students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable and facilitate effective collaboration, healthcare delivery and quality health outcomes. Inter-professional practice (IPP), on the other hand, takes place when multiple healthcare personnel from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, caregivers and the community to deliver wholesome quality care. Both IPE and IPP bring diverse groups of professionals together. They are integrated by principles and frameworks from their various disciplines but need to work as a united and cohesive unit in tending to patients with complex healthcare issues. To be able to learn and work together, the right mindset must be inculcated from an early stage. Individuals must understand their professional identity and the roles, responsibilities and partnerships between the various professionals. The mutual trust, respect, communications and accountability are crucial elements for the synergistic work outcomes. Misperceptions and assumptions about each others’ profession and discipline can be unhealthy. Inter-professional players will have to approach IPE and IPP with a committed and open mind. This paper discusses the continuum of IPE into IPP, and shares the views on high performance teams, team competencies as well as some thoughts on team science and their impact on patient care and patient safety. Finally the concept of interprofessionality is also introduced.