At OHSU, we believe that team-based, collaborative care will result in more effective and safer care for patients, lower health care costs and better outcomes for populations. That's why collaboration and educating a clinical and scientific workforce that addresses the health of populations in an interprofessional environment are goals of OHSU's strategic plan, an essential component of students' educational experience and integrated throughout OHSU's healing, education, research and community service missions.

Since 2012, the Interprofessional Initiative has helped drive an educational revolution at OHSU. Working collaboratively across OHSU's schools and programs, we have built a model for interprofessional practice and education that makes team-based, patient-centered care the new standard.

A culture of collaboration

Effective collaboration among health professionals has the potential to profoundly improve the quality of patient care. In the same way, effective collaboration between biomedical researchers and health care providers — key to the translation of basic science research to improve patient care and community health — has a foundation in interprofessional practice and education. At OHSU, we believe we all need to learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. The success of the Interprofessional Initiative relies on collaboration among administrators, faculty, students, community partners and patients. 

What is interprofessional education?

Interprofessional education prepares health professions learners, at all levels, for working together with the common goal of improving our health system. Interprofessional education occurs when learners from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other in order to enable effective collaboration.Through its "Foundations of Patient Safety and Interprofessional Practice" course, which 600 incoming students each year are required required to take, OHSU faculty lead small groups of students through a curriculum that covers a variety of topics from patient safety and ethics to speaking up and teamwork.  

Current faculty interested in learning more about the curriculum or participating as a facilitator can log in to O2 (OHSU ID required).