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Dr. Sexton is Associate Professor, and Director, Learning Resource Center, Simulation, & Interprofessional Education, University of Toledo, College of Nursing; and Mr. Baessler is Staff Nurse, Medical-Surgery Oncology, University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, Ohio.
The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
A new wave of health care delivery is rapidly gaining momentum and practicing nurses must understand exactly what is on the forefront of health care reform. Major health care systems have discovered a concept, termed interprofessional collaborative practice that is thought to be the future of health care. Interprofessional collaborative practice can defined as "when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, carers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care" ( World Health Organization, 2010 , p. 7). Creating effective, functional interprofessional health care teams has the potential to reduce medical errors, increase patient safety, and assist clinicians in the resolution of conflicts that may occur between differing professions ( Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2014 ).
Interprofessional Education
Achieving a culture where health care professionals possess the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to work collaboratively requires education and training. The term used to define students learning from, about, and with each other is called interprofessional education (IPE; World Health Organization, 2010 ). In 2011, a unique partnership of six associations (i.e., American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the American Dental Education Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Association of Schools of Public Health) produced a seminal report that defined four core...