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Interprofessional Education & Collaboration (IPEC): Standards in Accreditation

IPE Accreditation Standards for Health Sciences Education Programs

Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology

Standards for Accreditation of Graduate Education Programs in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Approved February 2016 | Last Updated October 2017 Effective August 1, 2017.  Available at https://caa.asha.org/wp-content/uploads/Accreditation-Standards-for-Graduate-Programs.pdf

Standard 3.0A Curriculum (Academic and Clinical Education) in Audiology

3.1.1.A Professional Practice Competencies
The program must provide content and opportunities for students to learn so that each student can demonstrate the following attributes and abilities and demonstrate those attributes and abilities in the manners identified.

Accountability

  • Understand how to work on interprofessional teams to maintain a climate of mutual respect and shared values. 

Effective Communication Skills

  • Communicate—with patients, families, communities, and interprofessional team colleagues and other professionals caring for individuals in a responsive and responsible manner that supports a team approach to maximize care outcomes.

Professional Duty

  • Understand the roles and importance of interdisciplinary/interprofessional assessment and intervention and be able to interact and coordinate care effectively with other disciplines and community resources. 
  • Understand and use the knowledge of one’s own role and the roles of other professionals to appropriately assess and address the needs of the individuals and populations served.

Collaborative Practice

  • Understand how to apply values and principles of interprofessional team dynamics. 
  • Understand how to perform effectively in different interprofessional team roles to plan and deliver care—centered on the individual served—that is safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.

3.1.4.A  Assessment of the structure and function of the auditory and vestibular systems
The program provides academic content and clinical education experiences so that each student can learn and demonstrate knowledge and skills in order to

  • engage in interprofessional practice to facilitate optimal assessment of the individual being served;

3.1.6A  Intervention to minimize the effects of changes in the auditory and vestibular systems on an individual’s ability to participate in his or her environment
The program’s curriculum provides academic content and clinical education experiences so that each student can learn and demonstrate knowledge and skills in order to 

  • conduct audiologic (re)habilitation and engage in interprofessional practice to maximize outcomes for individuals served;

 

Standard 3.0B Curriculum (Academic and Clinical Education) in Speech-Language Pathology

3.1.1B Professional Practice Competencies
The program must provide content and opportunities for students to learn so that each student can demonstrate the following attributes and abilities and demonstrate those attributes and abilities in the manners identified. 

Accountability

  • Understand how to work on interprofessional teams to maintain a climate of mutual respect and shared values.

Effective Communication Skills

  • Communicate—with patients, families, communities, and interprofessional team colleagues and other professionals caring for individuals in a responsive and responsible manner that supports a team approach to maximize care outcomes.

Professional Duty

  • Understand the roles and importance of interdisciplinary/interprofessional assessment and intervention and be able to interact and coordinate care effectively with other disciplines and community resources.

Collaborative Practice

  • Understand how to apply values and principles of interprofessional team dynamics.
  • Understand how to perform effectively in different interprofessional team roles to plan and deliver care centered on the individual served that is safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.

 

Medicine
Functions and Structure of a Medical School: Standards for Accreditation of Medical Education Programs Leading to the MD Degree.  Published March 2018, for surveys in the 2019-20 academic year, standards and elements effective July 1, 2019.  Available at http://lcme.org/publications/

Standard 7: Curricular Content

​7.9  Interprofessional Collaborative Skills

The faculty of a medical school ensure that the core curriculum of the medical education program prepares medical students to function collaboratively on health care teams that include health professionals from other disciplines as they provide coordinated services to patients. These curricular experiences include practitioners and/or students from the other health professions.

Nursing

Standards for Accreditation of Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing Programs, Amended 2018.  Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.  Available at https://www.aacnnursing.org/CCNE-Accreditation/Resource-Documents/CCNE-Standards-Professional-Nursing-Guidelines

STANDARD III
PROGRAM QUALITY: CURRICULUM AND TEACHING-LEARNING PRACTICES

III-H: The curriculum includes planned clinical practice experiences that:

  • enable students to integrate new knowledge and demonstrate attainment of program outcomes;
  • foster interprofessional collaborative practice; and
  • are evaluated by faculty

Elaboration: To prepare students for a practice profession, each track in each degree program and each track in the post-graduate APRN certificate program affords students the opportunity to develope professional competencies and to integrate new knowledge in practice settings aligned to the educational preparation.  Clinical practice experiences include opportunities for interprofessional collaboration.  Clinical practice experiences are provided for students in all programs, including those with distance education offerings.  Clinical practice experiences align with student and program outcomes.  These experiences are planned, implemented, and evaluated to ensure students are competent to function as members of interprofessional teams at the level for which they are being prepared. 

Programs that have a direct care focus (including, but not limited to post-baccalaureate and nurse education tracks) provide direct care experiences designed to advance the knowledge and expertise of students in a clinical area of practice.  
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National League for Nursing Accreditation Standards for Nursing Education Programs, Approved February 2016.  Available at http://www.nln.org/docs/default-source/accreditation-services/cnea-standards-final-february-201613f2bf5c78366c709642ff00005f0421.pdf

Standard V: Culture of Learning and Diversity -  Curriculum and Evaluation Processes

Quality Indicators Interpretative Guidelines Supporting Evidence Exemplars
V-E. The curriculum provides students with experiential learning that supports evidence-based practice, intra- and interprofessional collaborative practice, student achievement of clinical competence, and as appropriate to the program's mission and expected curricular outcomes, expertise in a specific role or specialty.
  • Faculty design and incorporate a variety of experiential learning experiences into the curriculum, including distance education programs, as appropriate for the expected practice role of the program's graduates.
  • Partnerships and agency contracts with health care and community facilities and other organizations are comprehensive and diverse in scope and designed to foster student acquisition of evidence-based practice competencies relevant to the workforce practice role for which the learner is being prepared.
  • Intra- and interprofessional collaborative student learning opportunities are provided to facilitate professional role development.
  • Exemplars of student learning activities in classroom, clinical, laboratory, and simulated environments and accompanying examples of student's achievement of learning outcomes
  • Copies of agency contracts 
  • Copies of student/faculty evaluation of agencies used to support experiential learning activities
  • Course syllabi

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2016 Criteria for Evaluation of Nurse Practitioner Programs, 5th ed. A Report of the National Task Force on Quality Nurse Practitioner Education.  Available at http://www.acenursing.net/resources/NTF_EvalCriteria2016Final.pdf

pg. 8 under "Additional Considerations":  Similarly, the NTF considered how to advance integration of interprofessional education ((IPE) experiences into the NP curriculum.  The NTF agreed that IPE experiences are important to preparing NP students for interprofessional practice, yet the NTF had to balance this with the challenges that still exist for for incorporating IPE into the curriculum.  The elaboration of Criterion IV.B.1 includes a recommendation for the inclusion of IPE.

Criterion IV.B.1:  The required documentation added faculty oversight of clinical learning experiences.  In addition, the revisions to the elaboration offer more guidance about the faculty/student ratio.  This guidance allows variation in the faculty/student ratio, taking into consideration more interprofessional education and team-based models of care as well as the use of innovative teaching models.

Occupational Therapy
2018 Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE®) Standards and Interpretive Guide
(effective July 31, 2020) December 2019 Interpretive Guide Version Available at https://acoteonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2018-ACOTE-Standards.pdf

ACCREDITATION STANDARDS FOR DOCTORAL AND MASTER'S DEGREE LEVEL EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST AND ASSOCIATE DEGREE LEVEL EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST ASSISTANT
PREAMBLE 

  • Be prepared to effectively communicate and work interprofessionally with all who provide services and programs for persons, groups, and populations. Be prepared to advocate as a professional for access to occupational therapy services offered and for the recipients of those services.

Standard Number B.5.1 for Doctoral Degree Level Educational Program for the Occupational Therapist

Identify, analyze, and evaluate the contextual factors; current policy issues; and socioeconomic, political, geographic, and demographic factors on the delivery of occupational therapy services for persons, groups, and populations to promote policy development and social systems as they relate to the practice of occupational therapy.

Standard Number B.5.1 for Master's Degree Level Educational Program for the Occupational Therapist

Identify, analyze, and evaluate the contextual factors; current policy issues; and socioeconomic, political, geographic, and demographic factors on the delivery of occupational therapy services for persons, groups, and populations to promote policy development and social systems as they relate to the practice of occupational therapy.

Standard Number B.5.1 for the Associate Degree Level Educational Program for the Occupational Therapist Assistant

Identify and explain the contextual factors; current policy issues; and socioeconomic, political, geographic, and demographic factors on the delivery of occupational therapy services for persons, groups, and populations and social systems as they relate to the practice of occupational therapy

Pharmacy
Accreditation Standards and Key Elements for the Professional Program in Pharmacy Leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy Degree (Standards 2016).  Available at https://www.acpe-accredit.org/pdf/Standards2016FINAL.pdf

SECTION I:  EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
The educational outcomes described herein have been deemed essential to the contemporary practice of pharmacy in a healthcare environment that demands interprofessional collaboration and professional accountability for holistic patient well-being.

Standard 3:  Approach to Practice and Care

Key Elements:
3.4.  Interprofessional collaboration
 - The graduate is able to actively participate and engage as a healthcare team member  by demonstrating mutual respect, understanding, and values to meet patient care needs.

Standard 11: Interprofessional Education (IPE)
The curriculum prepares all students to provide entry-level, patient-centered care in a variety of practice settings as a contributing member of an interprofessional team.  In the aggregate, team exposure includes prescribers as well as other healthcare professionals.

Key Elements:
11.1.  Interprofessional team dynamics
 - All students demonstrate competence in interprofessional team dynamics, including articulating the values and ethics that underpin interprofessional practice, engaging in effective interprofessional communication, including conflict resolution and documentation skills, and honoring interprofessional roles and responsibilities.  Interprofessional team dynamics are introduced, reinforced, and practiced in the didactic and introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) components of the curriculum, and competency is demonstrated in Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) practice settings.

11.2. Interprofessional team education - To advance collaboration and quality of patient care, the didactic and experiential curricula include opportunities for students to learn about, from , and with other members of the interprofessional healthcare team.  Through interprofessional education activities, students gain an understanding of the abilities, competencies, and scope of practice of team members.  Some, but not all, of these educational activities may be simulations.

11.3. Interprofessional team practice - All students competently participate as a healthcare team member in providing direct patient care and engaging in shared therapeutic decision-making.  They participate in experiential educational activities with prescribers/student prescribers and other student/professional healthcare team members, including face-to-face interactions that are designed to advance interprofessional team effectiveness.

Standard 13: Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) Curriculum

A continuum of required and elective APPEs is of the scope, intensity, and duration required to support the achievement of the Educational Outcomes articulated in Standards 1-4 and within Appendix 2 to prepare practice-ready graduates.  APPEs integrate, apply, reinforce, and advance the knowledge, skills, attitudes, abilities, and behaviors developed in the Pre-APPE curriculum and in co-curricular activities.

Key Elements:

13.3. Interprofessional experiences - In the aggregate, students gain in-depth experience in delivering direct patient care as part of an interprofessional team.

Physical Therapy

STANDARDS AND REQUIRED ELEMENTS FOR ACCREDITATION OF PHYSICAL THERAPIST EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS (Revised 11/11/15; 3/4/16; 10/31/17; 12/7/17).  Available at http://www.capteonline.org/AccreditationHandbook/

6F  The didactic and clinical curriculum includes interprofessional education; learning activities are directed toward the development of interprofessional competencies including, but not limited to, values/ethics, communication, professional roles, and teamwork.  NOTE: this element will become effective January 1, 2018.

Narrative:

  • Describe learning activities that involve students, faculty and/or practitioners from other health care professions.
  • Describe the effectiveness of the learning activities in preparing students and graduates for team-based collaborative care.

6L3  involvement in interprofessional practice

Evidence of compliance:
Narrative:

  • Describe the program's expectations for opportunities for involvement in interprofessional practice during clinical experiences.
  • Provide evidence that students have opportunities for interprofessional practice.

Professional Ethics, Values and Responsibilities
7D7  Communicate effectively with all stakeholders, including patients/clients, family members, caregivers, practitioners, interprofessional team members, consumers, payers, and policy makers.

Management of Care Delivery
7D28  Manage the delivery of the plan of care that is consistent with professional obligations, interprofessional collaborations, and administrative policies and procedures of the practice environment.

Participation in Health Care Environment
7D37  Assess and document safety risks of patients and the healthcare provider and design and implement strategies to improve safety in the healthcare setting as an individual and as a member of the interprofessional healthcare team.

7D39  Participate in patient-centered interprofessional collaborative practice.

Physician Assistant

Standards of Accreditation for Physician Assistant Education, 4th ed. Available at http://www.arc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Standards-4th-Ed-March-2018.pdf

The ARC-PA acknowledges ongoing changes in the delivery of health care and in the education of health professionals. The needs of patients and society must be considered by the ARC-PA, the sponsoring institutions and the programs. Education should be provided in a manner that promotes interprofessional education and practice.  

SECTION B: CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION

Introduction
The program curriculum prepares students to provide patient centered care and collegially work in physician-PA teams in an interprofessional team environment. The curriculum establishes a strong foundation in health information technology and evidence-based medicine and emphasizes the importance of remaining current with the changing nature of clinical practice.  

B1 CURRICULUM

B1.08 The curriculum must include instruction to prepare students to work collaboratively in interprofessional patient centered teams. 

ANNOTATION: Such instruction includes content on the roles and responsibilities of various health care professionals, emphasizing the team approach to patient centered care beyond the traditional physician-PA team approach. It assists students in learning the principles of interprofessional practice and includes opportunities for students to apply these principles in interprofessional teams within the curriculum.