AfrIPEN Studying State of IPE in Undergraduate Health Professions Education in Africa

The Africa Interprofessional Education Network (AfrIPEN) will be embarking research project to study Interprofessional Education in Africa. On behalf of AfrIPEN, Dr Gerard Filies [B.Sc. (OT), M.Phil (Health ScEd), PhD] recently presented a poster 2022 TUFH Virtual Regional Conference for Africa on the project along with collaborators Champion Nyoni PhD and Elize Pietersen PhD.

The research question is: 

What is the state of IPE in undergraduate health professions education in Africa? 

The objectives of the study are: 

1. To map HPE that offer IPE programmes in Africa
2. To describe the nature of IPE programmes offered in HPE institutions in Africa
3. To describes gaps in IPE in Africa. 

A detailed description of IPE programmes/activities in HEI in Africa is essential. This study would provide important foundational information related to the extent of the integration of IPE activities in undergraduate education at HEIs. This information would be important in supporting interventions towards region-wide IPE activities and harmonised policy development related to IPE in Africa. 

This project is part of the Africa Interprofessional Education Network (AfrIPEN)’s initiatives towards supporting, advocating for and enhancing IPE in mainstream health professions education in the African continent. 

For more information contact: gfilies@uwc.ac.za

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Stella Ng, University of Toronto Centre for Interprofessional Education (Canada)

Hello to the IPE/IPC community. My name is Stella Ng PhD, Reg.CASLPO and since May of 2021, I have been the director of the University of Toronto's Centre for Interprofessional Education. I spent nearly a decade prior to this as the director of research at the same university's Centre for Faculty Development. So, I am no stranger to health professions education; yet I am somewhat new to the IPE/IPC community. That said, while I am treating this spotlight submission as an introductory piece for myself, I must say it has felt more like returning home since I changed roles. 

I started out in my career as an educational audiologist, liaising between health care institutions and the public education system. I worked closely with children and their families, teachers and principals, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and clinical professionals (e.g. developmental pediatricians). It was from this practice experience that my passion for education science was eventually born. I went back to school and completed a PhD in Health Professional Education after the wonderful health professions education scholar Anne Kinsella handed me the book “The Reflective Practitioner” by Donald Schön. This book resonated with the indeterminate zones of practice I had found myself working within. While my formal education had exposed me to “evidence-based practice” as one way to approach practice, this model was falling short in the unique, value-conflicted, uncertain, and dynamic context of school-based health. So, for the past 15 years I have been studying reflective practice as a way of navigating the uncertainty of everyday practice. I have studied critical reflection as a way of reflecting that calls attention and propels change to unhelpful/harmful assumptions, power relations and social structures. And I have been studying and advancing transformative education and critical pedagogical approaches that help health professionals be critically reflective practitioners. I sum up my research, education, and leadership praxis as “critical reflection & pedagogy for collaborative, compassionate, ethical health care / science.” 

I am so thrilled to come home to the IPE/IPC community after a decade spent in faculty development and a bit more in the medical education world. While IPE and medical education are both a part of the broad health professions education field, there is a certain familiarity in the collaborative healthcare and education context. I believe collaborative approaches are more important than ever as we work together to create a world where trust and a deep sense of belonging are the standard, for all who seek or work in healthcare. I am looking forward to learning and working together with this community, toward a vision of a healthier world. 

Email Dr. Ng at: stella.ng@utoronto.ca

IPR.Global Names Inaugural Honorees of the Barbara Fifield Brandt Award

InterprofessionalResearch Global is pleased to announce the the inaugural honorees of the Barbara Fifield Brandt IPR.Global Award is Dr. Priya Martin BOT, MS, PhD and team from the University of Queensland (Australia) for their project entitled: Rural Interprofessional Education and Supervision Project (RIPES). Congratulations to Dr. Martin and the UQ team!

The Barbara Fifield Brandt IPR.Global Award recognizes an academic – practice partnership team that demonstrates impact on learner and health outcomes through sustaining and connecting interprofessional education and collaborative practice in community-based practice settings serving vulnerable and high-risk populations.

To learn more and watch Dr. Martin's project presentation, visit the IPR.Global website: https://interprofessionalresearch.global/20-21ipr-global-bra/

The 2022-2023 IPR.Global Research & Leadership Awards Application is now available! 

Information and submission link posted on the IPR.Global website: https://interprofessionalresearch.global/bestresearchawards/

Call for Applications - 2022-2023 IPR.Global Research & Leadership Awards

The InterprofessionalResearch.Global (IPR.Global) Research and Leadership Awards aim at honoring innovative interprofessional scholarly work in the format of partnership, evaluation, research, or dissertation work, accompanied by outstanding interprofessional leadership that has had a positive sustainable impact on the academic/practice/community with notable contribution to the interprofessional education and collaborative practice field at the global level.

The IPR.Global Research and Leadership Awards recognize interprofessional scholarly works and leadership that exemplify excellence in the following Award Categories:

Barbara Fifield Brandt IPR.Global Award

The Barbara Fifield Brandt IPR.Global Award recognizes an academic – practice partnership team that demonstrates impact on learner and health outcomes through sustaining and connecting interprofessional education and collaborative practice in community-based practice settings serving vulnerable and high-risk populations.

Hugh Barr IPR.Global Award

The Hugh Barr IPR.Global Award recognizes an interprofessional team for the evaluation of an outstanding example of collaboration between academic institutions and health/social service delivery organizations in high/middle-income and low-income countries to promote and sustain interprofessional education and collaborative practice.

John H.V. Gilbert IPR.Global Award 

The John H.V. Gilbert IPR.Global Award recognizes the author of an outstanding interprofessional doctoral dissertation, published in the past three years (since 2019), that has resulted in a learning paradigm which brings interprofessional education and learning to interprofessional collaborative practice in a practice setting where practitioners, students and patients have been engaged in developing measurable interprofessional high quality care. 

Global Distinguished Leadership Award 

The IPR.Global Distinguished Leadership Award recognizes outstanding leadership of an individual/team who have made transformative, inclusive, measurable, and sustainable contributions to the promotion, implementation, evaluation, and/or advancement of interprofessional education, collaborative practice, and/or research in and across their educational/practice/network settings with a global impact.

Learn more at: https://interprofessionalresearch.global/bestresearchawards

Application Submission is open till September 30th, 2022 at 11:59 PM PST

2022-2023 Application Form

2022-2023 Application Guidelines

Application Submission Link

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Hanlie Pitout, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (South Africa)

Hello, this is Hanlie Pitout and I am an occupational therapist by profession who worked initially as a clinician where I experienced the value of collaborative team work. Now I am a lecturer at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) in Pretoria, South Africa in the Occupational Therapy Department. I am also a PhD candidate researching the development of an IPECP module for final year students. I coordinate IPECP at SMU. I am a proud member of the AfrIPEN Board, of SAAHE IPECP committee and of AfriVIPE steering committee. I am also part of the Dirisana project which is a collaborative project with different national and international universities. 

Throughout my career I have been passionate about working with colleagues from different professions. I have experienced the value of working in a team with colleagues from a variety of professions to ensure quality health care in my job as an occupational therapist in a tertiary hospital. At SMU I was introduced to IPE in 2012 where we started a small interprofessional event for students from three professions. Currently there are four Schools including ten professions involved. Our focus was initially on final year students but we plan to involve all year levels soon in a longitudinal curriculum. In deciding on my PhD I wanted to establish IPECP at the university for all health care students. My other passion is research and especially collaborative research. 

I value the experience that I gained through attendance of and presentations during the AfrIPEN congresses. I learned so much from colleagues at other universities. Publishing in IPE is not easy but I was privileged to be part of the special edition of the Journal for Interprofessional Care on IPE in Africa.

I see IPR.Global as an international vehicle for networking and sharing resources in order to establish a scientific basis for IPECP worldwide. IPR.Global is important for all role players, as it offers the latest information on IPECP. 

And finally, should pineapple be on pizza? Yes or No?

I love pizza – with or without pineapple. What I do not like on pizza is banana. 

Email: Hanlie.Pitout@smu.ac.za

IPR.Global Pearls - Learning in lockdown: exploring the impact of COVID-19 on interprofessional education

A series of publications in the British Journal of Midwifery are in progress from members of the Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) Research Experience Subgroup. 

The series aims to explore international experiences of ‘learning in lockdown’ from the perspectives of students, academics, and service users as IPE delivery transitioned to emergency remote teaching during the COVID pandemic.

The papers offer a rich and unique data source to inform future IPE provision with respect to the liminal changes that had to be made because of COVID restrictions. The series considers the context of IPE provision, the impact of COVID-19, student experiences, academic experiences, impacts on practice-based learning, assessment of IPE, impact on service user provision and lessons learnt for future planning.  

The goal of this series is to share insight into, and authentic experiences of, the global impact of the COVID pandemic on IPE provision. The papers report on the benefits and challenges of interprofessional learning in lockdown, offering the global community opportunity to build resourcefulness, resilience, capacity, and readiness for managing the future of interprofessional education and collaborative practice.

Complete list of authors: Alison Power, Michael Palapal Sy, Maggie Hutchings, Tracy Coleman, Alla El-Awaisi, Gatera Fiston Kitema, Jean Gallagher, Chulani Herath, Nichola McLarnon, Shobhana Nagraj, Veronica O'Carroll, Melissa Owens, Vikki Park, Emma Pope, Lisa-Christin Wetzlmair, P Jane Greaves, and Elizabeth S Anderson.

LINK:  https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjom.2021.29.11.648   

IPR.Global Scholar Spotlight - Dr. Nhlanganiso Nyathi, Anglia Ruskin University (UK)

Hello, my name is Dr. Nhlanganiso Nyathi and I am an Associate Professor of Social Work at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in UK. I am originally from Zimbabwe. I am very passionate and committed to about the capacity for of interprofessional education and research in transforming in preparing health and social care students for readiness to transforming the health and well-being for vulnerable people.

I initially became curious about how a multidisciplinary approach could mitigate the challenges faced by children who survive off the streets of my home City of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe in the early 1990s. After successfully leading a donor funded Bulawayo Taskforce on Street Children initiative, I later embarked on Doctoral research in interprofessional child protection decision making following some years interprofessional social work practice, leadership and teaching in the UK.

My proudest moments in the area of interprofessional education and research include:

• Achieving my PhD award followed by a number of publications in the area of interprofessional education and research. 
• Serving in the Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care IPL strategic working group.
• Becoming a member of Africa Interprofessional Education Network (AfriPEN).
• Becoming a member of Afri-VIPE (a virtual IPE under the auspices of AfriPEN).

Having contributed and impacted interprofessional education and research at university and national levels, taking this passion to a global level through IPR.Global seems quite a logical professional progression form me.

And finally, should pineapple be on pizza? 

An absolute NO!

To contact Dr. Nyathi email: Nhlanganiso.Nyathi@aru.ac.uk