Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Summit
“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. . . . . A collaborative practice-ready health worker is someone who has learned how to work in an interprofessional team and is competent to do so. Collaborative practice happens when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, carers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care. . . .”
Source: World Health Organizations (WHO), Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education & Collaborative Practice, 2010
ASCO recognizes the importance of educating Doctor of Optometry students in multi-disciplinary environments and preparing them to be part of collaborative health care teams. Graduates of the schools and colleges of optometry must be prepared to work with members of other health-care professions to improve population health, provide a better care experience to patients and reduce health-care costs.
To this end, on February 5-6, 2016, ASCO held the Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Summit at Marshall B. Ketchum University in Fullerton, California. The Summit brought together representatives from ASCO member schools and colleges, non-optometry health professions institutions and affiliated organizations to identify and share current best practices and ideas on future development of Interprofessional Education (IPE) and Interprofessional Practice (IPP). Objectives included creating opportunities among attendees for networking and collaboration, identifying outcome measures and tools to assess the impact of IPE and IPP on student learning and developing strategies to assess the impact of IPE and IPP on patient outcomes. To read a report from the Summit, click here.
For more information, contact Joanne Zuckerman, ASCO’s Manager, Data Services and Special Projects, at jzuckerman@opted.org.
