Successes, challenges, and impact of a large-cohort preclinical interprofessional curriculum: A four-year reflection

Background: Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Standards 2016 established a new standard on interprofessional education (IPE) to place specific emphasis on developing interprofessional competence among pharmacy graduates. Interprofessional education activity: Interprofessional Collaboration And Team Skills (iCATS) serves as the core interprofessional curriculum for nearly 700 first-year students in seven participating health professional programs. The curriculum was developed around the four Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Competencies to develop foundational interprofessional knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Pharmacy students build preliminary competence in interprofessional roles and responsibilities, team dynamics, values and ethics, communication, and conflict resolution (ACPE Standard 11.1) and have an opportunity to learn about, from, and with other interprofessional students (ACPE Standard 11.2). Discussion: Refinement of the iCATS curriculum has been an iterative process over the past four years. For iCATS 2016–2017, all Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Scale (ICCAS) evaluation items indicated significant changes in pre- and posttest indicating targeted IPEC Competencies were addressed through the iCATS curriculum. Implications: The 2016–2017 revision of iCATS resulted in the most effective iteration of this core interprofessional curriculum to date. Clearer course objectives, a compressed schedule, employment of a variety of teaching/learning methods, and greater schedule cooperation among the colleges have contributed to the success and delivery of an IPE curriculum. Additionally, iCATS provides a unique opportunity for pharmacy students to interact with health professions students from six other programs while making significant progress toward competence in ACPE Standards 11.1 and 11.2 on interprofessional education (IPE).