Strategic Priority #1:
Future Health

Interprofessional education means that future healthcare professionals learn with and from each other in a variety of collaborative formats while preparing future health professionals for the integrative environment of healthcare. Students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health and other fields are able to interact through discussion, case studies, simulation exercises and peer teaching. IPE presents an assortment of various collaborative team-based exercises so students from different health sciences come together to figure out problems – just as it’s done in practice throughout the highly collaborative UCI Health system. With the “no-silos” approach, health practitioner communication and patient outcomes improve. At UCI and nationwide, interprofessional education and practice (IPEP) is being recognized as both a critical strategy to preparing students and the best scenario for patient care.

In the 2021-2022 academic year, the VCHA Work Group on Interprofessional Education was formed to conduct an environmental scan and present short- and long-term recommendations that would advance interprofessional education and team-based care at UCI. In fall 2022 as a follow-up to the work group, the Interprofessional Education & Practice (IPEP) Collaborative was created to enact the recommendations by planning and implementing IPEP programs across Health Affairs.

The UCI IPEP Collaborative seeks to transform health professions education and health care delivery by fostering community-centered partnerships, collaborative learning, interprofessional research and continued interprofessional practice advancements.

Our mission focuses on 4 separate, yet interrelated foundational elements:

1. IPEP Curriculum Development and Integration for early learners; Developing sustainable infrastructures to support IPE activities across Health Affairs
2. Community Engagement Projects and Outreach
3. IPEP Research and Framework development
4. IPEP Faculty and Practicing Provider Development and Continuing Education

We will achieve our mission by:

• Incorporating resources which lead to innovative, measurable and sustained learning.
• Using outcomes to guide future goals and objectives.
• Prioritizing teaching initiatives and resources to target specific leading health concerns, conditions and bridging the gap of healthcare disparities and inequities within the community.
• Working closely with, considering advice from, and making curriculum recommendations to the COHS Faculty Assembly IPE Standing Committee