Interprofessional Education in Canada: Student, Educator, and Placement Supervisor Perspectives

Given the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on education and healthcare operations, scholars have called for research to understand how Interprofessional Education (IPE) changed during this time (Lackie et al., 2020). In response, we asked: what is the current state of IPE in Canada; and in what ways are perspectives from the social sciences and humanities integrated therein?Methods/methodology: Our methods were threefold. First, we performed a scan of Canadian university and college websites and interviews with key educators (N&#3f16), to determine the state of IPE and the degree to which this IPE included perspectives from the social sciences and humanities. Second, we surveyed (N&#3f21) and interviewed (N&#3f4) health and social service providers who oversee student placements to understand their knowledge of IPE and how they reinforce collaborative practice with the students they supervise. Third, we surveyed and interviewed students (data collection in progress) who had recently graduated and had been working in their professions for 6-12 months to understand how IPE prepared them for professional practice. We used descriptive statistics to analyze webscan and survey data and performed a content analysis on qualitative data.Results: We identified 102 Canadian post-secondary institutions that offer IPE to students from 67 unique professions, disciplines, and majors of study. Educators shared models of successful and innovative approaches to IPE and pedagogy that consider health disparities and social justice through the promotion of health equity and use of anti-racist pedagogies. Student and placement supervisors’ responses demonstrated the degree of interprofessional learning in practice. They identified challenges and opportunities for IPE related to changing student and community demographics due to immigration and population aging, as well as working with rural and Indigenous communities.Conclusions, implications, and curiosities: We conclude with a discussion of future directions for improved collaboration between higher education and healthcare sectors.