Abstract
One of the many complexities associated with the delivery of high quality health care is that it requires effective collaboration of numerous health professionals. As such, the training of future health professionals in interprofessional collaboration is recognised internationally as an important issue. As a national leader in the education of health professionals, the Faculty of HMNBS at Deakin has been keen to address this aspect of student education. There were, however, significant challenges in organising interprofessional education (IPE) with obstacles including the geographical distribution of students over four different campuses and off-campus, timetable and professional placement clashes, inequalities in student numbers across six different courses, a mix of undergraduate and postgraduate students, workload and accreditation requirements and varied content of the different disciplines proving to be particularly problematic. This presentation will describe the journey in addressing these barriers during the development of a unit in IPE for psychology, social work, occupational therapy, nursing, medicine and dieteticsstudents. This presentation will also outline the two key distinguishing features of this unit, including being wholly online (utilising Deakin Studies Online (DSO) and eLive) and focusing on interprofessional case management.