(289) Evaluating Interprofessional Education Curriculum: Are We Fostering Collaborative Practice Identities?

Objective : Interprofessional education (IPE) has become a requirement of accreditation for pharmacy programs across North America. The current iteration of an enhanced integrated IPE curriculum at the University of Toronto has been completed by two years of Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students. An evaluation was conducted to determine if the IPE curriculum is supporting the development of collaborative practitioner identities, and to identify the activities and elements of the curriculum that most helped develop this component of their professional identity.

Methods: A realist evaluation (Pawson, 2013) is being used to investigate the impact of the IPE curriculum on pharmacy graduates. Data from qualitative interviews with PharmD graduates of 2021 and 2022, as well as competency assessments, reflections on IPE learning activities, graduate exit surveys, and specific learning activity evaluations, is being analyzed to evaluate the impact of the integrated curriculum.

Results: The preliminary analysis of the interviews indicates that the integrated IPE curriculum supported the development of role clarification for graduates by helping them learn what other health professions do, which helps them understand their own role as a pharmacist. Graduates expressed learning about a pharmacist’s position in the “hierarchy” of healthcare professions through team interactions in IPE activities and in experiential learning settings. The IPE activities fostered the formation of collaborative practitioner identities, in the context of medication optimization. Graduates valued the collaborative pieces of their professional identities, however noted the challenges of collaboration in busy work environments.

Conclusions: The IPE curriculum at the University of Toronto, including on-campus learning activities and experiential education, helped PharmD graduates in the formation of the collaborative practitioner component of their professional identities as pharmacists later in practice.