SCAFFOLDING IN INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

Abstract

Medical errors due to failure to communicate and collaborate are one of the top causes of death in the United States. Interprofessional education (IPE) is an integrated instructional approach where various health care disciplines create opportunities for students to learn together in order to function as cohesive, effective, and collaborative interprofessional teams. Successful IPE program design is a multi-faceted challenge, especially for social work educators in light of the changes in EPAS 2015. Academic institutions are being encouraged to offer IPE programs; faculty members are then charged with developing IPE programs for their institutions. IPE program design could generate a multitude of advantages for students, faculty, academic programs, professions, university partners, and communities—provided the approach is systematic and inclusive. This prospectus will explore IPE program design in field settings for social work faculty as a scaffold design, which targets proactive understanding of resources and applications. The prospectus will explore three interrelated special considerations: 1) the connections between IPE and social work education; 2) the learning needs (learning styles and fear of negative evaluation) of students most likely to be invited to participate in an IPE program; and 3) the needs of field instructors and needs of social work students in relation to their field experience. Social work faculty as program developers new to IPE will gain insights from this work and be better able to concurrently layer educational outcomes with professional gains, while initiating opportunities for interprofessional collaborative practice skill-building in field settings—ultimately enhancing health outcomes.