Interprofessional education in pediatric clerkships: A survey of pediatric educators in North America

Background Medical education organizations in the US and Canada recommend that interprofessional education (IPE) occur throughout health professions training. Prior studies have demonstrated few IPE activities in medical school clinical clerkship curricula. Purpose To determine the prevalence of IPE curricular activities in pediatric clerkships in North America. Method Through the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP), faculty leaders in pediatric medical education were questioned about the prevalence of IPE activities in their pediatric clerkship, as well as their attitudes about IPE, including perceived barriers. Results Faculty leaders from 50% of all COMSEP member medical schools in the US and Canada responded. Overall, 29% (20/68) of clerkship directors or associate clerkship directors (CD's) stated that IPE activities existed in their medical school pediatric clerkship. Nearly 40% of these programs (8/18) did not offer IPE to all their students, owing to IPE activities being available only at certain times of the year or only at certain clerkship site locations. Among all IPE activities, nursing, pharmacy and physical therapy students participated most often with pediatrics medical students. CD's rated interprofessional communication competencies as the most important goal of the existing IPE programs. Barriers to IPE included insufficient faculty teaching time and poor alignment of academic calendars among health professions schools. Conclusions Despite IPE being a national curricular priority, more than 70% of pediatric clerkships in the US and Canada do not have structured IPE activities. Numerous barriers to implementing IPE exist.