Dental
educators have realized that interprofessional education (IPE) is a way to
improve the care a new dental professional such as you provides from the moment
you begin working on that first patient. Interprofessional education is defined
by The Center for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) as
“two or more professions learn[ing] with, from and about each other to improve
collaboration and the quality of care.” Through IPE, programs promote teamwork,
an understanding of the different roles and responsibilities of the various health
professions as well as respecting the differences in those experiences and
taking away stronger clinical knowledge from the collaboration.
With our knowledge today of how oral health is linked
to systemic health, IPE allows you and other students of health professions to
learn from each other and tears down the clinical walls between the health
sciences. By learning in this way, you and your contemporaries will be
well-versed in referring patients to practitioners even outside the dental
field and will better understand your role in preventive whole-body care.
Have you experienced interprofessional learning at your institution? What is your impression of IPE? Is interprofessional practice something you feel prepared for as a new practitioner?