Building and Training a Cadre of Facilitators for Interprofessional Education Programs

Successful delivery of IPE learning experiences requires trained facilitators prepared to assure high quality, sustainable IPE experiences. Ideally, facilitators represent a diverse mix of faculty and clinicians working across professions, disciplines, and settings. Challenges include limited time, training, and resources for recruiting and training. At Duke, over 500 first year health professions students convene in-person for biannual Foundations of Learning in Interprofessional Practice (FLIP) workshops. With an evidence-based design, we aimed to grow a diverse facilitator cohort for these events with dedicated support and training in IPE.Implementation: FLIP workshops match students into IP teams to engage in interactive, case-based activities focused on IPEC competencies. We enlist facilitators through online applications and provide 1-hour virtual orientations that include content on IPE competencies, facilitation, and feedback. Facilitators receive a detailed guide and participate in pre-brief and debrief sessions at each workshop. All facilitators are offered a stipend and lunch to support their participation.Evaluation plan: For the fall 2024 workshop, facilitators reported level of experience, motivators for participation, and development needs via online survey. The Interprofessional Facilitation Scale (IPFS) was administered before and after the program to measure changes in facilitators' perceptions and abilities. Statistical significance analysis was conducted.Outcome(s) and significance: We successfully increased facilitator number and diversity from 20 facilitators across 5 professions in 2022 to 67 across 11 professions in 2024. In fall 2024, 48% of facilitators had prior FLIP experience and 63% reported IPE as part of their healthcare training. Leading motivators for participation included interest in IPE and importance of IP collaboration in healthcare. Pre-post comparison of IPFS showed significant improvements in facilitators' perceptions of their abilities to encourage IP interaction (p=.008) and to contextualize IPE for students (p