‘Being’ and ‘Becoming’ Interprofessional Practitioners – the Roles of Interprofessional Socialization and Dual Identity Formation

Seminar Description: 
Learning Objectives:
• Identify and reflect on the achievements and challenges of IPE evolvement over the past few decades.
• Discuss the importance of interprofessional socialization and dual (professional and interprofessional) identity formation in preparing interprofessional practitioners.
• Explore ways to integrate and value IPS at all levels ((individual, profession, and system levels) using an ontological perspective.

Over the past five decades, interprofessional practice and education (IPE) has experienced significant improvements as an approach to address the need for interprofessional collaboration across different programs and professions. The ever-changing healthcare systems in the 21st century, however, requires and demands a fundamental and sweeping shift in our thinking and conceptualization of IPE as it seems IPE knowledge, skills, and competencies alone are not sufficient to prepare and transform current and future health and social care professionals for an integrated interprofessional model of practice. The transformation of healthcare education and practice requires the preparation of healthcare professionals who see themselves not just a member of their own profession, but simultaneously as a member of the larger interprofessional team and community (also called dual identity development) whose goals are to improve the Quintuple Aim (as highlighted in the 2019 HPAC and NEXUS IPE document). Who ‘we are’ (as professionals) greatly affects how ‘we think’ and what ‘we do’ in practice (i.e., responding to, prioritizing, and engaging in interprofessional collaboration).

In doing so, and according to Khalili (2019, 2021), we need to challenge our basic assumptions about how IPE can assist students to become ‘collaborative practice-ready’ and/or healthcare providers to become ‘interprofessional practitioners’. Our focus needs to shift from IPE as the End Goal to IPE as means to get to the goal of transforming educational and practice. There is a need to re-conceptualize IPE as ongoing processes of interprofessional socialization within a system rather than ‘one‐size‐fits‐all intervention’. To transform healthcare, it requires cultivating collaboration across both education and practice through system change. This system change requires rigorous research and scholarship to measure and evaluate IPE impact on learners, teams, and the Quintuple Aim.

As an evolutionary process within a system through interprofessional socialization (IPS), IPE is not only a pedagogical approach, but also is a philosophy of collaboration. IPE is a philosophy of collaboration integral to the core mission in building the infrastructure and culture of interprofessionalism within the education and practice settings. As an approach, IPE is a pedagogical strategy to seamlessly integrate opportunities for IPS and interprofessional collaboration into curricula and, in turn, into healthcare team practice.

In this seminar, the participants will be engaged in dialogue and reflection (through small and large activities) on ways to integrate and value IPS at all levels (individual, profession, and system levels), using an ontological perspective of the ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ interprofessional practitioners. Such a perspective will help to create the structure and space for IPE to effectively challenge the power differentials and the existing hierarchies between professions in which the contribution, knowledge, and skill of each profession are deemed as important as others.