Interprofessional Competency Frameworks in Education

Interest in Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) in health care is increasing, as concerns about patient safety, resource shortages, and effective and efficient care have become explicit priorities. Although there are many exemplars of Interprofessional education (IPE) for collaborative, patient-centered care, there is little in the literature to describe competencies for an Interprofessional collaborative practitioner. Although there are many perspectives on the concept of Interprofessional collaboration, there is scarce literature on the subject related to its application in health education programs. This article describes two Interprofessional competency frameworks that have been developed in Canada and Qatar. These particular frameworks are highlighted because of College of the North Atlantic's (CNA-Q) tie to Canada as a Canadian College operating within Qatar. The frameworks, which have been respectively applied within their own contexts, offer opportunities for the application of Interprofessional competencies elsewhere in the worldwide. The models proposed are reviewed and their utility for educators and practitioners is discussed. The first framework is a Canadian competency framework for IPC that: (1) considers descriptions of collaborative practice and (2) uses existing literature to support a model for describing competencies for collaborative practice. The second framework of Interprofessional health competencies developed in Doha, Qatar originated from a National Priorities Research Project supported by the Qatar National Research Fund. It builds upon a model developed by Qatar University (QU) (El-Awaisi et al., 2017) and the Canadian National Interprofessional Competency Framework for Collaborative Practice (Johnson, et al., 2015). It provides guidance for implementation of IPE in pre- and post-licensure settings