Running head: INTERPROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION AND EDUCATION – PART 1 1

Interprofessional Collaboration and Education – Part 1

Ashley Banbait N01111730

Emma Swartz N01240805

Melissa Thomson N00005852

Interprofessional Leadership BHSW 3501

Professor Stacey McPhail

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

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Introduction

We have been challenged to introduce a new initiative to implement Interprofessional

Education into the curriculum of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellness. As students, we

are working towards entering the workplace in our different professions and in order to

maximize our success, it is imperative that we broaden our horizons outside of our current path

of learning. In the future, as we will be teaming up with many different types of professions in

order to ensure the best possible client/patient outcomes, we must learn to work collaboratively

with all sectors we may encounter (Meyer, 2016). Together, we can create an educational

opportunity that provides the greatest synergy to improve our learning and in turn provide the

greatest productivity return for our future employers.

Needs & Benefits

In order to determine the needs of our program and to determine the best suited

collaboration, we conducted a review of the current programs in the Faculty of Health Sciences

and Wellness (FHSW). Our assessment sought to find the most industrious joining of educational

forces, and we attempted to determine which programs could benefit the most from such an

alliance. We concluded that the most beneficial and productive use of our resources would be to

implement a workshop that includes the Workplace Health and Wellness (WHW) department,

the Nutrition/Healthy Lifestyle (NHL) program and the Fitness Health Promotion (FHP)

program.

When comparing the learning objectives of the 3 programs, there are many consistencies

that can be addressed by participating in a collaboration such as this. The learning objectives of

The FHP program include requiring students to ‘assist in the development of business plans for
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health and fitness programs, activities, and facilities”, as well as to “interact with others in

groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and the achievement

of goals” (Government of Ontario, 2003, p. 6-20). The NHL Program asserts the following to be

included in their learning outcomes “Assist in the development of business plans for health and

wellness programs, activities, and facilities” as well as “Interact effectively and professionally

with clients, staff, and volunteers in health and wellness programs, activities, and facilities”

(Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, n.d.). Additionally, the WHW

program claims that their students will learn to “Demonstrate responsible leadership,

accountability and effective collaboration, modeling the embodiment of personal and workplace

health and wellness principles” (Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, n.d.).

Individually, these programs are working towards the same goal and using interprofessional

education will strive to further this agenda collectively.

The need for implementing a workshop as an Interprofessional Education (IPE) activity

for the FHSW is to ensure that students are able to use interprofessional collaboration in the real

world when they are working within any organization, be it an office, a clinic, a hospital or any

other type of environment, personal and professional. The FHSW provides high quality

education that is undeniably used and practiced across the health and wellness industry. Students

must obtain additional hands-on experience as well as collaborative experiences as the industry

is shifting and ever-evolving. Students need to be able to work with many other professionals to

provide exceptional care and experience for their client or patient.

One of the benefits for implementing the workshop within the FHSW is that students will

be able to bring their knowledge and expertise of their program where they can educate others in

the other programs. This allows collaboration and better-quality team-work amongst the
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students, and eventually between them as future employees. Implementing an IPE workshop will

encourage students to be able to critically think about real life scenarios and to be able formulate

solutions as a team. Our goal for implementing this specific type of workshop is to provide

students with the best knowledge of similar programs, allowing each program to showcase their

specialties and bring their own value to the table. We want to ensure that students are able to

collaborate professionally with other industries to provide the best service while cultivating

sustainability and improving team functioning and effectiveness. (HealthForceOntario, 2007).

Internal & External Support

The internal support for our IPE activity will be Humber College along with the FHWS.

The goal for Humber as an educational institution is that they must be able to support and inspire

ambitious learning for students (Humber College, 2021). Our IPE activity must be able to engage

students to utilize their critical thinking skills, communication, teamwork, inclusion and

leadership skills as these are consistent with Humber’s overall learning outcomes framework that

includes Mindsets, MetaSkill and Skills in Action (Humber College, n.d.).

The external support for our IPE program will be the government, more specially Health

Canada and HealthForceOntario. Health Canada has funded a Canadian interprofessional health

collaborative organization where they emphasize that providing IPE and collaborative practice

will be effective for building stronger healthcare teams while providing outstanding

experience/care for patients. (CIHC, 2007). HealthForceOntario supports the need of

collaborative and team-based care within the healthcare system. These external supports will

provide us valuable training and system changes within the healthcare system and all

workplaces.
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Competency Framework Addressed

According to the World Health Organization, interprofessional education “occurs when

students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective

collaboration and improve health outcomes” (Mangine, 2018). This full-day workshop will

address for us as well as for the participating students, many of the six main IPE competency

domains outlined by the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaboration (CIHC) including “role

clarification, team functioning, patient-/client-/family-/community-centered, collaborative

leadership, interprofessional communication, and addressing interprofessional conflict” (CIHC,

2010, p.11). Each student will be able to discuss, clarify and learn about their roles, and the roles

of the other students involved. By completing a case study that is geared towards finding a

solution for a real-life workplace health issue, each student will be given a chance to function

collectively as a team. They will be required to resolve any and all conflicts that may arise when

formulating new strategies for implementing new initiatives for a healthy workplace. As

differing perspectives will inevitably be presented, each student will be given an opportunity to

effectively resolve challenges. Creating a new healthy workplace initiative in response to the

case study will require all students participating to communicate strategically to listen and share

unique ideas, challenging each of them to show effective leadership skills to maintain the groups

rapport. This will help them garner a respect for the differing concepts and planning processes of

students in the other programs. Additionally, as healthcare professionals, this case study

challenge will assist us in being able to articulate ideas that are tailored towards our

clients/patients needs.
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Methodology/Logistics

To facilitate the initiative, students from the programs will be offered the opportunity to

attend a full day workshop. Students will be given a brief lecture from the workshop coordinator

(a professor from one of the programs highly competent in IPE) on the differing and similar

components of each program, then together they will be required to solve a Case Study in groups

of 6 (each group having at least one representative from each program). Members from each

program will solve their case study utilizing skills that they have already been taught, while

coordinating and implementing ideas and teachings from the other students experiences and

knowledge base. Each group will be required to present their plan at the end of the session,

justifying their results. This voluntary activity will result in a certification of completion for

resume purposes.

In order to maximize the success of the workshop, they will be held at the end of the

second semester of the second year, which would be the half way point for the WHW, and

towards the end of the other two programs. It is vital for the workshops to be completed later in

the educational pathway as the timing of implementation will coincide with the action stage of

the transtheoretical model of behaviour change (Prochaska & Velicer, 1997). During this stage,

the students will have progressed through the precontemplation, contemplation and preparation

stages, and will be ready to tackle this workshop as they have already gained required knowledge

from their courses. Only then will the students have an appropriate level of independence, and

the ability to accurately apply their skills to the interprofessional workshops offered (University

of Toronto, 2016). If these workshops were held at the very beginning of the program, there is

the potential for inadequate and incomplete reactions to the case study and working with their

fellow students, thus reducing the impact the workshop may potentially have on them all.
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Challenges

There are many potential barriers when adopting an interprofessional education program.

Three similar, yet different programs are collaborating together therefore students may have their

own opinions grounded in the teachings within their specific programs. Additionally, students

may feel like adversaries to the students in the other programs initially due to an assumption that

they are required to prove that their program is somehow superior. There may be a potential lack

of synchronization between the student’s capabilities when it comes to discussing the case and

different personalities may emerge. Some students may be close minded and only stick to what

they were taught as opposed to truly listening to, and attempting to understand the other students

experiences and interpretations. If an individual programs curriculum is taught in a non-flexible

way, it also may prevent students from having open mindedness. When discussing the case study

amongst the groups, there also may be potential for some students to incorporate their own belief

systems into the scenario which could cause disagreement (Mangine, 2018). Lastly, as the

workshop will be on a voluntary basis there may be a lack of participation due to student’s time

constraints. Due to the above risk factors, we suggest encouraging that all program coordinators

first work collaboratively to ensure that their students are being taught with an IPE mindset from

the start of their respective programs. Promoting an IPE belief system from within, and one that

encourages active participation in extracurricular activities such as this, will only have positive

effects on the outcome.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we are confident that if implemented strategically, we will maximize the

success of all students, creating an opportunity for each to thrive in their own profession, while
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bringing necessary knowledge from other occupations into their own. Together, we will work

towards a client focused working environment that supports an innovative, team focused belief

system that respects all aspects of a healthy workplace including mind, body and soul.
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References

Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative. (2010, February). A National Interprofessional

Competency Framework. Retrieved from

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Des_mznc7Rr8stsEhHxl8XMjgiYWzRIn/view

Government of Ontario. (2003). Fitness and Health Promotion Program Standard. Ministry of

Colleges & Universities. Retrieved from

http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/audiences/colleges/progstan/humserv/fitness.pdf

HealthForceOntario. (2007). Interprofessional Care: A Blueprint for Action -

HealthForceOntario. Retrieved from

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/6605840/interprofessional-care-a-blueprint-

for-action-healthforceontario

Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. (n.d.). Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyle

Promotion. Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellness. Retrieved from

https://healthsciences.humber.ca/programs/nutrition-and-healthy-lifestyle-promotion.html

Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. (n.d.). Our HLO Framework. Senior

VP Academic. Retrieved from http://humber.ca/svpa/ilos/hlo-framework/

Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. (n.d.). Workplace Health and

Wellness, Bachelor of Health Sciences. Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellness.

Retrieved from https://healthsciences.humber.ca/programs/bachelor-of-health-sciences-

workplace-health-and-wellness.html
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Mangine, D. (2018, August 7). The Challenges and Benefits of Interprofessional Education in

Simulation. SimTalk Blog. Retrieved from https://blog.simtalkblog.com/blog/the-

challenges-and-benefits-of-interprofessional-education-in-simulation

Meyer, M. (2016, January 26). Benefits of Interprofessional Education: Short- and Long-term.

Johnson & Johnson. Retrieved from: https://nursing.jnj.com/benefits-of-

interprofessional-education-short-and-long-term

Prochaska, J. O., & Velicer, W. F. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change.

American journal of health promotion, 12(1), 38-48.

University of Toronto. (2016). Core Curricular Learning Activities. Centre for Interprofessional

Education. Retrieved from https://ipe.utoronto.ca/curriculum/uoft-ipe-curriculum/ipe-

core-learning-activities
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Rubric
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