If you’ve been exposed to various nursing programs around the country, you’ve likely heard the term Interprofessional Education, or IPE. It has been a recurring theme in many nursing programs since the American Association of Colleges of Nursing collaborated on a 2011 report: “Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice.”
The report outlined a variety of program competencies that should be put into practice by all healthcare professionals.
What Is Interprofessional Education?
According to one expert, Interprofessional Education helps prepare nursing students to work more effectively as part of a healthcare team. Director of the clinical learning lab at the University of Kansas Medical Center Mary Meyer, RN, MN, Ph.D. APRN, notes that IPE requires team members from differing specialties to work together in order to improve patient outcomes – and that’s great practice for future nurses.
Specifically, Meyer believes students benefit in four areas:
- Better awareness of the role skilled communication plays in foster better patient outcomes
- Exposure to the constraints of interprofessional teamwork
- Knowing how other members of a healthcare team are able to contribute toward the goal
- Experiencing exactly how care is provided to patients
Meyer says, when part of a collaborative healthcare team, “Nurses are empowered to practice to the full extent of their education and training.” And that, Meyer adds, leads to “cooperation, mutual respects and shared-decision-making.”
It’s been said that nursing is a career that’s part science and part a compassionate art form. Nurses need to know how to work with patients in varying states of mind or agitation; how to complete countless nursing procedures; and how to deal simultaneously with the stresses of patients, coworkers, and physicians.
How To Become a Nurse
It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse. Learn how to get involved in the nursing field through one of Fortis’s nursing programs.
