Exploration of Professional Boundaries as Future Community-based Practitioners Engage in Interprofessional Teamwork

• Interprofessional education experiences are essential to transition the IPEC competencies from classroom-based knowledge to actual patient care. Active learning opportunities offer an important progression in the development of health care professionals by allowing them to practice the IPEC competencies. Fully integrated interprofessional teamwork requires service delivery by the person most qualified to provide the needed care. This expectation raises underdiscussed issues regarding scope of professional practice. Traditional beliefs that specific skillsets belong to one profession fail to consider whether their profession is the only, or even the best, prepared to provide the service. This issue becomes more complex in outpatient settings where teams are quickly assembled from other community practitioners, without ongoing opportunities to develop long-term relationships that foster understanding and trust. While students appreciate the patient care benefits from a team approach, teamwork seems risky for students who obtain employment in single profession setting. They hesitate to engage other professions, especially when those practice acts seem to overlap their own and raise questions about who should provide specific services. During professional education, students must be prepared for teaming by exploring boundary issues related to the professional roles of other community-based providers. Without this preparation, interprofessional practice may seem like something that can only occur safely and effectively in hospital-based settings where teams have the luxury of evolving over time as they work together in close proximity. This course combines video, independent readings, facilitated small group discussions, reflection to prepare for a student-led team simulation that brings together students drawn from traditionally solo practice professions of physical therapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, and audiology to experience the reality of a community-based team. This non-traditional teaming activity provides a unique opportunity to converse about the scope of their own professional roles and responsibilities while simultaneously considering the perspective of other professions.