Hi Kieran,

It depends what you mean by hard evidence? Logistically, inter-professional education seems cost-effective - but there are factors to consider. For instance, it's a no-brainer to use one or a few lecturers to deliver 'core skills' to all health professional groups i.e. research, communication skills etc - especially if you are referring mainly to undergraduate health professions education. That will save money. On the other hand, discipline-specific education delivered by 'generalist' lecturers may appear cost-effective but, in the long run, does it produce effective and well-prepared health practitioners for their exact role? If they are not - then issues such as increased errors, litigation etc will not make it cost-effective.

Personally, I am a fan of generic health professions education - as it tends to promote inter-disciplinary working, shared health-related cultures and evidence-bases, more flattened hierarchies, more shared governance goals and, generally, everyone 'pulling in the right and same direction' to deliver effective, quality, shared care. That, to me, has to be what makes health services cost-effective.

hi;

I haven't looked for evidence related to cost-effectiveness of interprofessional education but agree with Dean. The opportunity to offer courses to groups of health science students makes sense for a number of reasons, one of which is cost, the other is to build those relationships early in the health care providers socialization into the health care environment. Those courses should be the ones that all students pursuing health care careers need in order to practice. The discipline specific education needs to be provided to the students by those of their profession who understand that disciplines theorys, models and unique contribution to health and wellness of constituents.

We have had interprofessional learning and have developed the curriculum over the last 10 years. We now have 9 pathways on this programme. I believe in this approach but realise that the students being in mixed groups and taught the same subject does not truly represent IPL it is the way it is contextualised to mean something in practice.

As a teacher on the programme, the most wonderful thing is the interprofessional collaboration that occurs between the lecturers.

Hi Helen, That is a really interesting take on interprofessional education - that it will foster collaboration amongst the educators as much as it will amongst the learners. I wonder have you or would you consider evaluating that idea? It may well be worth pursuing.