Interprofessional education through shadowing experiences ...

ABSTRACT: The World Health Organization has recently added Interprofessional Education (IPE) to its global health agenda recognizing it as a necessary component of all health professionals' education. We suggest mandatory interprofessional shadowing experiences as a mechanism to be used by chiropractic institutions to address this agenda. IPE initiatives of other professions (pharmacy and medicine) are described along with chiropractic. This relative comparison of professions local to our jurisdiction in Ontario, Canada is made so that the chiropractic profession may take note that they are behind other health care providers in implementing IPE.Interprofessional shadowing experiences would likely take place in a multi-disciplinary clinical setting. We offer an example of how two separate professions within a Family Health Team (FHT) can work together in such a setting to enhance both student learning and patient care. For adult learners, using interprofessional shadowing experiences with learner-derived and active objectives across diverse health professional groups may help to improve the educational experience. Mandatory interprofessional shadowing experiences for chiropractors during their training can enhance future collaborative practice and provide success in reaching a goal common to each profession - improved patient care.

Chiropr Osteopat. 2010 Dec 2;18:31. Riva JJ, Lam JM, Stanford EC, Moore AE, Endicott AR, Krawchenko IE. Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, McMaster Innovation Park, 175 Longwood Rd S, Hamilton, ON, Canada. rivaj@mcmaster.ca.