Intentional interprofessional experiential education

Abstract

The experiential component of a doctor of pharmacy curricula is an ideal, yet underutilized vehicle to advance interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives. To date, most experiential-based IPE initiatives occur in a naturally occurring, non-deliberate fashion. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Experiential Education Section formed the Task Force on Intentional Interprofessional Education in Experiential Education in academic year 2015-2016 to explore the issue. This commentary describes the work of the task force, including the following elements: defining intentional interprofessional experiential education as “the explicit effort by preceptors and practice sites to create/foster educational opportunities or activities designed specifically to achieve interprofessional educational competencies;” conducting a systematic literature review to identify examples of intentional interprofessional experiential education in the published literature; surveying faculty with oversight of experiential education programs and preceptors within those programs; and generating recommendations to stakeholders including AACP, pharmacy schools, and experiential education administrators.