Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice

ASCO’s Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) Core Competencies for Optometric Education

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Interprofessional Education

Interprofessional education occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. Once students understand how to work interprofessionally, they are ready to enter the workplace as members of the collaborative practice team. This is a key step in moving health systems from fragmentation to a position of strength. (Source: World Health Organization 2010)

Optometry is an integral component of the health care team, and collaborative education and practice is growing within the schools and colleges of optometry. Of ASCO’s schools and colleges of optometry in the United States, 21 are currently components of a multi-disciplinary university or health professions-specific campus. Two such institutions began as freestanding colleges of optometry. Our schools and colleges participate in interprofessional education in collaboration with more than fifteen other health professions. In addition, fourth-year clinical rotations at VA Hospitals offer residents the opportunity to work with multidisciplinary health teams comprised of medical specialists, dentists, nurses, pharmacists and other disciplines.

The importance of interprofessional education in optometric education is a basic tenet of ASCO’s 2011 revised “Attributes of Graduates of the Schools and Colleges of Optometry” report. For example, graduates of the schools and colleges of optometry are expected to:

  • have the ability to appropriately use all resources, including the use of ancillary personnel, intra- and interprofessional collaboration, co-management, and referral, in ensuring the best quality patient care;
  • manage their practices in a manner that is appropriate within the health care delivery system and that promotes patient access to eye and vision care;
  • have the ability to recognize personal limitations regarding optimal patient care and to work with the broader health care community in providing the best care possible;
  • have a commitment to work as an integral member of the larger interprofessional health care team to improve patient care outcomes;
  • have the ability to recognize and initiate the coordination of patient care requiring advanced medical, systemic, interprofessional, or specialty care;
  • have the ability to work in cooperation with those who receive care, those who provide care, and others who contribute to or support the delivery of prevention and health services.

Nationally, ASCO was the first “Supporting Organization” of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) a coalition of health professions education associations promoting interprofessional education and collaborative health care. ASCO supports IPEC’s “Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: Version 3,” which can guide curricula development at all health professions schools.

In 2019, ASCO’s Board of Directors approved the establishment of a Special Interest Group (SIG) for faculty and administrators at the schools and colleges of optometry which facilitates the exchange of ideas among the schools and allows for greater collaboration on IPECP projects of joint interest. The same year the Board of Directors approved ASCO’s “IPECP Toolkit: A Guide to Effective Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Experiences in Optometric Education.” This open-access document is intended to serve as a guide for building, implementing and sustaining IPECP initiatives at optometric institutions. And in 2022, the Board of Directors approved “Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) Core Competencies for Optometric Education,which provide guidance to schools in the implementation of IPE at their institutions.

Interprofessional education is the future of health professions education and optometry is well positioned to be at its forefront!

Additional IPE Resources

 

Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Special Interest Group (SIG)

American Interprofessional Health Collaborative

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Interprofessional Education/Interprofessional Practice (IPE/IPP)

Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC)

Centre for Advancement of Interprofessional Education

Centre for Interprofessional Education, University of Toronto

Collaborating Across Borders (CAB) Conference Series

Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine

Health Professions Accreditators Collaborative (HPAC)

Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC)

Interprofessional Professionalism Collaborative

Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Education (JCIPE)

The Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation

MedEdPortal: The Journal of Teaching and Learning Resources, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Interprofessional Education

National Academies of Practice

National Academy of Practice in Optometry

National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education 

National Interprofessional Education Consortium (NIEC), American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT)

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Audiology Project (TAP)

World Health Organization: Transformative Education for Health Professionals

IPE at our Schools and Colleges

ASCO’s “IPECP Toolkit: A Guide to Effective Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Experiences in Optometric Education” provides a variety of examples of didactic, clinical and extracurricular projects that are making a difference in the training of future optometrists. Go to section 3, “IPE Exemplar Projects from ASCO Member Institutions” to see how students are being prepared to team with other health care professionals to collaborate and create a shared understanding in order to provide the best treatment and health outcomes for their patients.

ASCO’s Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) Core Competencies for Optometric Education, approved in 2022, provides schools and colleges with five core competencies that support the goal of working as an integral member of the larger interprofessional health care team to improve patient care outcomes. Each Core Competency is broken down into several parts in order to assist schools when developing and implementing strategies to support their students in reaching these competencies.