The Case for Interprofessional Teaching in Graduate Medical Education

Abstract

Interprofessional education has been promoted as a strategy to dismantle professional silos and promote collaborative patient care. Citing this, medical educators have emphasized the widespread integration of interprofessional education into undergraduate medical education curricula. However, in the current residency training environment, little reinforcement exists for principles gleaned from interprofessional education, and little is known about the role that interprofessional providers have in resident education. In this perspective, we offer the concept and practice of interprofessional teaching to bolster the benefits of interprofessional education during residency training. Interprofessional teaching, relatively unexplored and potentially underutilized, may offer many of the same benefits of interprofessional education but is more readily adapted for the graduate medical education setting. The intensive care unit, characterized by a culture of multidisciplinary teamwork and complex patient care, is an ideal setting in which to use interprofessional teaching. Prior to enthusiastically implementing interprofessional teaching interventions, careful consideration should be paid to the setting, strategies, and impact on all key stakeholders.

Keywords: graduate medical education; intensive care unit; interprofessional education; interprofessional teaching; medical education.