Moving the Interprofessional Education Research Agenda Beyond the Limits of Evaluating Student Satisfaction

Abstract

Background: Much of the research on the impact of interprofessional education (IPE) interventions is hampered by a lack of focus on whether they were successfully translated to effective interprofessional practice (IPP).Methods and Findings: This article reports the outcomes of a think tank of Australian IPE researchers who articulated these gaps and brainstormed types of research and research questions needed to help address these gaps. A social constructivist theoretical approach was proposed, including more ethnographic and longitudinal investigation.Conclusions: A greater focus on theory is needed to understand the underlying processes involved in IPE, IPP, and the transition between them. This will involve researchers employing more qualitative and mixed-method approaches in addition to the quantitative methods that appear to dominate this field, currently.