Meet the Team: Exploring Health Professional Roles and Responsibilities in an Introductory Interprofessional Course
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction: Health professional academic programs require interprofessional education (IPE) to meet accreditation standards and better prepare students for collaborative patient care. The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) includes the roles and responsibilities of the health professions as a key domain of IPE curricula. A learning module focusing on this domain was developed for an interprofessional introductory course involving 12 health professions. Adaptations to this module over time aimed to enhance content and student knowledge. Methods: Students were assigned to small interprofessional teams throughout the course and completed modules aligned with the IPEC core competencies. The first module highlighted roles and responsibilities. Students submitted assignments related to their health profession asynchronously, prior to a live class session during which they explored their professions in small groups. A debriefing session with the entire class summarized student responses. Facilitators representing all included health professions moderated team discussions and contributed to the debriefing. Results: = .0254). Student evaluations indicated an overwhelmingly positive response to content related to the roles and responsibilities of other professions. Discussion: This approach allowed students to enhance their knowledge of other health professions' roles in interprofessional work and compare them to their own roles and responsibilities. Enhancement of the roles and responsibilities module provided a strategic approach for interprofessional students to learn about multiple other health professions.
Source: MedEdPORTAL
Authors: Elizabeth W. Blake, Kimberly A. Taylor, Beverly Baliko, Teri Browne, Donna D. Ray, Abbas S. Tavakoli
Institution: University of South Carolina
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7144218741