Strategies for overcoming barriers to IPE at a health sciences university

Since the identification of barriers to interprofessional education (IPE) by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative in 2011, much has been done to overcome them. A 2014 publication of a literature review found 1570 reports about barriers to IPE but only 18 reports about factors that enable universities to successfully deal with them. The purpose of this report is to describe the strategies used by leadership and faculty at one health sciences university to overcome various obstacles in order to foster a university culture that embraces IPE. Among successful strategies were university strategic planning, strong leadership by a chief academic officer, consistent engagement of deans and program directors, identification of teamwork as a core competency for all graduates, and a centralized multiprofessional faculty steering committee appointed and paid by the Provost to plan and implement the work.