A growing impetus has emerged across different levels of government, the health care system, and professional health schools to address the many issues affecting the quality of patient care in today’s Canadian health care landscape. Currently, the promotion of increased teamwork and collaboration among administrators and practitioners is an important approach that is being implemented to manage the financial costs of health care in our country, improve the working environments for health professionals, and ultimately, serve to provide a better model in delivering comprehensive and holistic patient care.

Interprofessional education and practice, which describes the active participation of different professionals learning with, from and about each other, seeks to tackle the obstacles diminishing the level of our health care. By embracing cooperation rather than competition between the various allied health professions through a process of mutual respect as well as shared knowledge and decision-making, health care professionals are able to make positive change. Not only can greater collaboration among health professionals result in better work environments, but by synergistically integrating the active involvement of those in your care with the expertise of educators and clinicians alike, the delivery of improved health care to patients and their families can be achieved.

The McGill Educational Initiative on Interprofessional Collaboration: Partnerships for Patient and Family-Centered Practice is a $1.3 million Health Canada-funded project that began in 2005 with the purpose of developing interprofessional education and interprofessional practice. With direct and active participation from McGill University, the McGill University Health Centre, and the Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital, the project brings together academics, administrators, clinicians, and students to develop qualities necessary to work with other health care professionals in a dynamic manner both in the clinical environment as well as the classroom. At McGill, the schools of Medicine, Nursing, Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Educational Psychology are involved in all facets of this interprofessional project.

This initiative uses four major strategies to facilitate interprofessional education and practice, which includes:

1. A professional development program aimed at school faculty and clinician educators to develop attitudes, knowledge, and skills required for interprofessional practice;

2. Building learning resources to teach interprofessional practice for students and clinicians. Drawing on the existing infrastructure at McGill, namely Medical Molson Informatics and the Medical Simulation Center, the project can create a range of tools that brings together individuals from all health professions to engage in interprofessional learning. For example, a web-based software application is being developed that enables all allied health professionals to work together in an improved, efficient manner. Please visit http://mmiweb.mmi.mcgill.ca/dev/Dave/MrsB-E-Case.htm to see a sample case of a breast cancer patient;

3. Integrating interprofessional education and practice into the curriculum across the schools under the Faculty of Medicine. Workshops and conferences have been implemented thus far in the project, but the long-term goal is to further incorporate interprofessional learning by developing common courses across curricula; and lastly,

4. Enabling interprofessional practice in clinical settings, which benefits not only working professionals, but also helps students strengthen clinical skills within interprofessional settings.