Using the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Core Competencies to Build a Microcredentialing Framework for Interprofessional Curriculum Development

We are developing a framework to 1) guide the development of a comprehensive interprofessional curriculum and 2) organize learning activities and assessments to enable student achievement of each domain outlined in the IPEC Core Competencies (IPEC, 2016). Within the framework, each of the four IPEC Core Competency domains represents a microcredential that could be earned by a student. An interprofessional curriculum built on a framework of microcredentials will reflect the four characteristics that define quality interprofessional education (IPE)—rationale, outcome-based goals, deliberate design, and assessment and evaluation (Barzansky et al., 2019). The design and implementation of this interprofessional microcredential system will influence the way in which interprofessional collaboration is incorporated into curricula across professions. The curriculum will be designed to extend over the entirety of any given student’s program, and will incorporate expected outcomes into existing curricula and co-curricular activities. This work is being conducted at a public university with six Schools of the Health Sciences (Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Dental Medicine, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health). While we have an over 10-year history of innovative interprofessional learning activities, anchored to the IPEC Core Competencies since their initial release in 2011, we have not yet developed a deliberate interprofessional curriculum to weave learning activities together in a meaningful and comprehensive manner