Curriculum Requirements

Students in the Faculties of Dentistry, Health and Medicine are required to participate in interprofessional health education activities. These activities, together with specific program requirements, are currently evolving and in transition and are integrated into the curricula of individual programs. Participation is mandatory. The objective of interprofessional education in the Faculty of Health include developing:

• knowledge and understanding of, and respect for, the expertise, roles and values of other health and human service professionals.
• understanding the concept and practice of patient/client/family-centred care.
• effective communication, teamwork and leadership skills applied in interprofessional contexts.
• positive attitudes related to the value of collaboration and teamwork in health and human service contexts.
• an understanding, from a multi-disciplinary perspective, of the Canadian health and social systems, the legal and regulatory foundation of professional practice, how health and human service institutions are organized and operate, and how different health and human service professions contribute to the systems and institutions.

Students in the entry-to-practice programs in the Faculty of Health are required to maintain enrolment in IPHE 4900/ IPHE 5900 (see calendar section on Health Professions Interprofessional Health Education) for the duration of their studies. Successful completion of this course is a requirement for graduation in all programs and will be recognized further with the awarding of a Certificate in Interprofessional Collaboration. For more information, students should contact their specific school/college.

“The overall goal of interprofessional education and collaborative practice is to provide health system users with improved health outcomes. For this reason, a clear understanding of the characteristics of the ideal collaborative practitioner is required to inform curriculum and professional development for interprofessional education, and enlighten professional practice for interprofessional collaboration.”

(Appendix I, CIHC National Interprofessional Competency Framework, 2010)

Like all health professions students, dentistry and dental hygiene students are required to fulfill six nationally mandated interprofessional/collaborative competencies:

1. Interprofessional communication - Learners/practitioners from different professions communicate with each other in a collaborative, responsive, and responsible manner.
2. Patient/client/family/community-centred care - Learners/practitioners seek out, integrate and value, as a partner, the input and the engagement of the patient/client/family/community in designing and implementing care/services.
3. Role clarification - Learners/practitioners understand their own role and the roles of those in other professions, and use this knowledge appropriately to establish and achieve patient/client/family and community goals.
4. Team functioning - Learners/practitioners understand the principles of teamwork dynamics and group/team processes to enable effective interprofessional collaboration.
5. Collaborative leadership - Learners/practitioners understand and can apply leadership principles that support a collaborative practice model.
6. Interprofessional conflict resolution - Learners/practitioners actively engage self and others, including the client/patient/family, in positively and constructively addressing disagreements as they arise. To support interprofessional collaborative practice, team members consistently address conflict in a constructive manner.

Dentistry and dental hygiene students participate in the following mandatory interprofessional activities that address collaborative outcomes:

• First Year Event
• Who's on your team?
• LGBTQ Workshop
• Patient/client co-management
• Collaborative practice in the real world
• ISANS Interpreter Project
  

For more details, contact:

    Cynthia Andrews
    Coordinator, Interprofessional Education
    (902) 494-1244
    cynthia.andrews@dal.ca

During each year of their four-year undergraduate medical education program, learners will be required to participate in IPE activities.  In each pre-clerkship year (year 1 and 2), students are required to complete two embedded (re: pre-scheduled) activities and one elective activity, typically a mini-course. In year 3 clerkship there are multiple embedded interprofessional learning activities during several clinical rotations. During the final year of the medical program, all students are required to participate in an interprofessional educational elective, in a collaborative setting.

Engagement and participation with other health professional students and practitioners in both clinical and academic environments ensures that by the end of their program, learners will be able to:

1. Through role clarification, describe their own role and the role of other health care professionals, taking into account similarities and differences between different health professions.
2. Understand and apply the principles of conflict resolution amongst health professionals and understand how it impacts patient care.
3. Demonstrate and understand the principles of collaborative leadership as it relates to health care teams in provision of patient care.
4. As a health care team, keep the patient/family/community at the center of health care by involving them in the goals of care and the decision making process that directs this care and provision of services.
5. Understand the importance of interprofessional communication in a health care team, and how it can positively or negatively impact patient care.
6. Describe the importance of team functioning and how collaboration can improve health care teams and team dynamics.
7. Engage in collaborative learning that will continuously improve personal practice and contribute to collective improvements in practice.

These objectives link/map to the CACMS accreditation requirements for IPE, the LCME standards for IPE, and the CanMeds 2015 Competencies for residency ready learners.

There are a menu of activities that students may choose from to satisfy this elective requirement; these include the IPE mini-courses, certain conferences, as well as interprofessional simulation activities.

Dr. Anuradha Mishra
Assistant Dean, Skilled Clinician and Interprofessional Education
ugmeipe@dal.ca