Taking IPeL Outside of Health

1
Taking IPeL Outside of Health

• Dr Steve Smith
• Associate Director, CIPeL
• Coventry University

2
Why Interprofessional in Health?

• Increased complexity of health care system
• the necessity for communication and cooperation
  between both teams and team members
• Price (2005)

3
CIPeL

• CIPeL aims to promote IPeL
• So far concentrated on health and social care
  professions
• CIPeL website homepage
• Our aim is to develop and disseminate solutions
  to the barriers to inter-professional learning
  amongst students of health and social care
  professions, through the use of innovative
  e-approaches

4
Background

• However, CIPeLs role is not confined to health
  and social care professions
• Original CETL bid included wider promotion and
  dissemination of IPeL
• In 2007 CIPeL targeted promotion of IPeL in wider
  University and in particular Geography,
  Environment and Disaster Management (GED)

5
Aim and Objectives

• To increase IPL activity within the University
• Promote IPL to students outside of health and
  social care professions
• Promote creation and dissemination of IPL
  e-learning resources
• Initially targeted on GED but with aspirations to
  influence wider University

6
Initial Issues

• Language of IPL often health focussed
• e.g. the Centre for the Advancement of
  Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) defines
  interprofessional learning as
• Occasions when two or more professions learn
  from and about each other to improve
  collaboration and the quality of care

7
Initial Issues

• Many people find the term professional
  difficult
• Associated with practice
• Perceived as non-academic
• The term discipline is less alienating
• Are the terms really different?

8
What is meant by a Discipline?

• Definitions vary very little
• e.g. a branch of learning or field of
• study
• Chambers Dictionary of English (2003)
• or
• a field of study
• Websters Third International Dictionary
• (2002)

9
What is meant by a Profession?

• Definitions vary a lot
• e.g. a calling requiring specialised knowledge
  and often long and intensive preparation
• Websters Third International Dictionary (2002)

10
What is meant by a Profession?

• or, for example
• a vocation or calling, especially one
• that involves some branch of advanced
• learning or science
• Oxford Encyclopaedic English
• Dictionary (1991)

11

• However, some definitions go a lot further
• group of individuals who adhere to high ethical
  standards and uphold themselves to, and are
  accepted by, the public as possessing special
  knowledge and skills in a widely recognised,
  organised body of learning derived from education
  and training at a high level, and who are
  prepared to exercise this knowledge and these
  skills in the interest of others
• The Australian Council of Professions (undated)

12
Profession vs. Discipline

• One of the key distinctions surrounds the concept
  of practice
• Separation of practice and theory rather
  arbitrary and highly questionable
• Furthermore, Wilde (undated) defines discipline
  as
• the study, or practice, of a subject

13
Profession vs. Discipline

• Some authors suggest they are too similar to
  separate
• For the purposes of this paper the terms
• interprofessional and interdisciplinary will be
• used interchangeably
• Curran (undated)

14
Profession vs. Discipline

• The debate on how to achieve effective
• interdisciplinary teamwork is often
• couched in terms of individuals learning to
• work more flexibly and in ways that are
• not demarcated along strict professional
• lines
• Rushmer and Pallis (2003)

15
Profession vs. Discipline

• Some authors consider the need to separate the
  terms, e.g.
• descriptions that use .. interdisciplinary to
  mean, or synonymous with, interprofessional are
  now at odds with definitions established in the
  UK
• Gilbert (2005)

16
Profession vs. Discipline

• Lots of overlap, e.g.
• Interdisciplinary education leads to the ability
  to understand and be understood by a diverse
  group of specialists
• Woods (2007)

17
Profession vs. Discipline

• Very similar to CAIPE definition of
  interprofessional education
• Occasions when two or more professions learn
  from and about each other to improve
  collaboration and the quality of care

18
The Way Forward

• Find a common language to talk about issues in
  IPL
• Use interdisciplinary as it is a more inclusive
  term
• Address the main issues
• Collaborative approach to working (between
  disciplines/professions)
• Learning from and about each other