ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ROGER DUNSTON University of Technology, Sydney
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MONICA MORAN University of Western Australia
PROFESSOR GARY ROGERS Griffith University
Interprofessional education for collaborative practice Helping to meet current and future healthcare needs. Interprofessional education (IPE) involves students
The project has charted the evolution of IPE’s:
or practitioners from different health professions
• increasingly recognised importance
learning with, from and about each other in
• place within the curriculum
order to improve collaboration and the quality
• increasing prominence in national accreditation
of health services.
• national governance.
Healthcare and health promotion are becoming
These evolutionary changes have positioned
more complex in the face of an ageing population,
Australia as a global leader in IPE. Four
multiple morbidity and increasing recognition
corresponding major developments are set
of the social and environmental determinants
out below
of health. Consequently, effective collaboration between the health professions has never been more important. A 12-year cycle of research and development in Australian interprofessional education known as the SIF Project (Securing an interprofessional future for Australian health professional education and practice), has recently concluded (see https:// sifproject.com/). 40
The Health Advocate • DECEMBER 2019
Development 1: Rethinking the place and contribution of IPE—the formation of a national consensus IPE and interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) used to exist on the margins of health professional education and health practice. They are now positioned centre-stage, globally and nationally.
