Making organizational change to achieve improvement and interprofessional learning: perspectives from health professions educators

Health professionals must learn to work in the context of an interdisciplinary team in order to meet the needs of the evolving health care delivery system. These teams must work successfully with community systems to achieve common goals, while understanding and respecting diverse perspectives, experiences and skills. Strategies for changing health professions education to prepare new health professionals for such work have been tested by the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative. Illustrations of making educational change, and creating situations to sustain the change, are offered from the Collaborative's experience. Teams participating in the Collaborative engaged in interprofessional education, working on community-based health improvement issues. The illustrations are offered in the context of higher education, and the many barriers to making change that must be overcome. The work of the Collaborative provides valuable illustrations of successful activities to promote and create change, and ultimately to achieve improvement and interprofessional learning, better preparing new health professionals for the health systems in which they will work.