IPR Global Pearls: Interprofessional collaboration: A public policy healthcare transformation call for action - National Academies of Practice

Interprofessional collaboration: A public policy healthcare transformation call for action

Irma Ruebling, Terry Eggenberger, Jody Shapiro Frost, Ellayne Ganzfried, Annette Greer, Hossein Khalili, Jessica Ochs, Julie Ronnebaum, Susan M. Stein (National Academies of Practice)

Journal of Interprofessional Education and Practice (2023)

The United States faces a health system crisis from evolving and lingering social, economic, and political issues complicated by a global pandemic. However, it is the same crisis that presents opportunities for transformation as the nation evaluates how best to address the vulnerabilities, inequities, and inefficiencies of fragmented healthcare exposed during a period of extreme systemic strain on the healthcare system. The National Academies of Practice (NAP) is well positioned as the oldest interprofessional health sciences organization, to lead advocacy efforts in a comprehensive approach for inclusive care that is modeled on interprofessional collaborative practice. NAP recognizes that the scope of healthcare extends traditional hospital boundaries into communities and homes. Further, NAP advocates for intentional interprofessional education of pre-licensure and post-licensure health professionals as a requirement to foster a paradigm shift in healthcare where the patient and family are central and active members of decision making. The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation of the ongoing strategic goals, initiatives, and core tenets of NAP that are focused on Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (IPCP), Interprofessional Education (IPE), and now Interprofessional Education for Collaborative Practice (IPECP). Further, NAP examines current healthcare system issues in a defining manner and offers viable action plans for NAP and others to support a paradigm shift in the framework for health system transformation.

LINK: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405452623000770

CITATION: Ruebling, I., Eggenberger, T., Frost, J. S., Ganzfried, E., Greer, A., Khalili, H., Ochs, J., Ronnebaum, J., & Stein, S. M. (2023). Interprofessional collaboration: A public policy healthcare transformation call for action. Journal of interprofessional education & practice, 33, 100675. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjep.2023.100675  

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Shelley Cohen Konrad, University of New England (USA)

Hello from the beautiful state of Maine. My name is Dr. Shelley Cohen Konrad and I’m the founding Director of the Center to Advance Interprofessional Education and Practice at the University of New England (UNE). The Center is the IPE hub for UNE providing interprofessional programming across its campuses in Biddeford and Portland Maine. UNE also has a satellite campus in Tangier Morocco. 

I’m a clinical social worker by training having come to academia and the world of research and scholarship as a second, midlife career. As a social worker my primary focus was on children and families (1) and as such, I worked closely with workers from many disciplines including medicine, education, rehabilitation, mental health, and juvenile corrections. In 1997 I co-founded a non-profit, Kids First, whose mission was and continues to be to help children and families during parental separation and divorce. My very first peer reviewed article, Interdisciplinary Collaboration Between Mental Health Practitioners and Lawyers with Divorcing Families: Building Pathways for Communication and Practice was published in 2001 in the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage. It was a prescient forecast of my later career focused on interprofessional research and scholarship.

Days after completing my doctorate at Simmons College in Boston I was approached by the University of New England to teach in their Master of Social Work program. At first reluctant to leave pediatric social work practice, I thought the opportunity to teach amongst multiple health professions was an enticing way to spend what I was then calling my ‘retirement’ job. Once situated at UNE I quickly discovered that rather than learning together, health professions programs were not only siloed, but didn’t seem to particularly like or respect one another. I learned that UNE had made past efforts to develop an interprofessional culture, but it had failed mostly because the initiative was top down rather than generated by faculty and student priorities. In 2006 along with a small cohort of colleagues, I began hosting lunches and developing co-designed interprofessional activities with colleagues similarly interested in disrupting the silo culture. In 2010 UNE’s Interprofessional Education Collaborative was launched. The Collaborative grew exponentially as faculty, students, community partners, and professional staff realized the utility of bringing students together to learn health professions skills and knowledge. 

My original areas of research interest stemmed from my doctoral work with parents of children who acquired life affecting illnesses and disabilities. My work expanded to better understanding tenets of relational learning and practice, which naturally intersected with interprofessional education. I also became intrigued by the association between the arts and health professions pedagogy (2) being an avid art collector myself. 

Currently I’m passionate about collaborative and cross-institutional research and scholarship projects, which is what drew me to IPR.Global. It’s been a pleasure being part of a group whose common interests so, align. Its also so much fun networking and making connections with colleagues from all over the world. Apart from my dorkish, academic side, I enjoy baking, reading mystery novels, hiking, and spending time on the beautiful coast of Maine with my family, friends, and constant companion, Hank, a Boston Terrier.

To learn more about the UNE Center to Advance Interprofessional Education and Practice: www.une.edu/caiep

Contact Dr. Cohen Konrad at: scohenkonrad@une.edu

REFERENCES

1. Cohen Konrad, S. (2019) Child and Family Practice: A Relational Perspective, Second Edition.  New York: Oxford University Press.
2. Cohen Konrad, S. & Sela-Amit, M. (Eds.) Social Work and the Arts: Expanding Horizons. (January 2024).