Cultivating Interprofessional Practice in New Zealand: An Inter-Sectorial Approach to Developing Interprofessional Education

The World Health Organization (WHO) challenges health providers to commit to and champion interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaboration (IPC), arguing that IPE promotes IPC, which in turn improves health outcomes. Providing opportunities for students to engage in IPE, which occurs when current or future practitioners learn from, with, and about one another, ensures that health providers are in line with the WHO imperative of 2010. This paper describes the process of developing and implementing an undergraduate IPE initiative within a large New Zealand district health board, Counties Manukau Health, which provides clinical placements for over 500 students annually. This initiative involved 2 half-day interprofessional workshops attended by 123 students from seven disciplines. The impact of the interprofessional learning on students' perceptions and their confidence in relation to teamwork, communication, and interprofessional interaction were evaluated. Overall, students had a positive view of interprofessional communication and teamwork, and their opinion of relationships with other professionals improved following participation in the workshops.