Curriculum FAQs

“Interprofessional education occurs when two or more professionals learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.” (World Health Organization, 2010)

The Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare & Education (CACHE) at the University of Toronto created and implemented the IPE Curriculum in order to develop a new generation of health professionals who are able to practice in a reformed health care system that values and enables interprofessional collaborative care. Interprofessional Collaboration modifies negative attitudes and perceptions towards other professions, remedies failures in trust and communication between professions, reinforces collaborative competence, allows professionals to cope with problems that far exceed the capacity of any one profession, as well as enhancing job satisfaction and easing stress. (Barr, 2002)

Interprofessional Education is a worldwide initiative increasing the standards of patient/client care and employee satisfaction. The skills that you will learn during this curriculum will not only assist in your future practice, but will also increase your opportunities moving into the workforce. Upon successful completion of your IPE curriculum program requirement, you will receive a letter of completion that can be incorporated into your portfolio.

“If health care providers are expected to work together and share expertise in a team environment, it makes sense that their education and training should prepare them for this type of working arrangement.” (Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, 2002)

The Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare & Education (CACHE) and University of Toronto’s Interprofessional Education Curriculum is broken down into competencies, each represented on a learning continuum under 3 components; Exposure (Introduction), Immersion (Development), and Competence (Entry-to-Practice). Learning activities are specific to each learning competency, and are based on the level of knowledge students are exposed to during the learning activity. As the students progress through the curriculum, they will gain a deeper understanding of the interprofessional collaborative practice.

There are twelve health sciences programs at UofT involved in the IPE Curriculum/Program. Each program has individually determined the number of IPE learning activities their students are required to attend. If you have any questions about your requirements, please contact your IPE Program/Faculty Lead.

Details of your IPE curriculum requirements are provided on the IPE Management System and through Quercus.

To enable and foster interprofessional learning experiences over the course of professional programs, students are encouraged to complete half of their learning activity requirements per year. Students in three and four year programs may choose to complete their requirements in years one, two and/or three, dependent on program specific recommendations and placements.

If you were unable to attend a foundational session, please contact your IPE Program/Faculty Lead. They will instruct you as to next steps (e.g. a make-up activity if available, a make-up assignment, etc.).

Students will be able to find the registration link and/or contact person within the description of the learning activity. All approved IPE learning activities can be found on the IPE Learning Activities Calendar.

If you are unable to attend a learning activity, please withdraw 48 hours in advance through your Student Record on the IPE Management System.

If you have attempted to register for a learning activity and the IPE Management System has indicated that there are no spots left for your program, this means that the number of spots allocated to your program have been filled. You will be automatically placed on the waitlist and will be notified 48 hours prior to the learning activity via email if you have been removed from the waitlist and successfully registered.

Please be patient, and check your email in the days leading up to the learning activity, as we may have been able to allot additional spots to your program, or another student from your program may have withdrawn from this learning activity, in which case the next person on the waitlist is moved up.

Please do not show up to the learning activity if you are not registered. We ask that students retain a level of professionalism in respect for their fellow students who may have been above them on the waitlist and were also not able to attend.

We also ask all students, if for some reason they are no longer able to attend, to withdraw through the IPE Management System 48 hours in advance or request to withdraw from the activity if less than 48 hours in advance, by emailing ipe.utoronto@utoronto.ca

We ask that students retain a level of professionalism in respect for the number of spots that each activity can accommodate and withdraw 48 hours in advance of a learning activity. Students can withdraw from an activity through the IPE Management System. If due to extenuating circumstances a student cannot attend an event, their file will show a “Did Not Attend” (DNA) for that activity. If a student incurs two or more DNAs, they will be reported to their IPE Program/Faculty Lead.

We ask that students plan ahead and avoid having to leave early from an activity. This disrupts not only the student’s learning process but the learning process of their peers as well. If due to extenuating circumstances a student must leave the activity, their file will show a DNA for that activity if they leave more than 15 minutes prior to the end of the activity. If the student leaves less than 15 minutes prior to the end of the activity, the student will notify the facilitator and they will determine the status of the student’s attendance, with a Curriculum Portfolio representative.

Students have the ability to review the completion of their IPE Learning Activities through the IPE Management System: http://ipecurriculum.utoronto.ca/

Please ensure you put the attendance code provided at every learning activity on the IPE management system, so that your attendance is tracked.  Should your file not reflect your attendance in an activity immediately after the date of the activity, please contact general inquiries at ipe.utoronto@utoronto.ca.

For information on how to put in the attendance code, please watch this video

Evaluation data provides invaluable feedback to the organizers of the IPE learning activities so that improvements can be made to the learning activity to create the most valuable learning experience for future students.

Students can receive recognition for facilitating an IPE learning activity should they meet the following criteria:

1. Must complete the Student Facilitator Workshop
2. Must facilitate an IP learning activity

Students can receive recognition at the Immersion level for organizing an IPE learning activity should they meet the following criteria:

1. Must complete the Student Facilitator Workshop
2. Must be on an IP Team
3. Must be on a longitudinal Working Group
4. Must have a Curriculum Team Advisor

Please contact general inquiries at ipe.utoronto@utoronto.ca including your profession and contact information in the email. You will then be added to our facilitator database and notified with facilitation opportunities. You can also create a facilitator account via the IPE Management System.