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This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Interdisciplinary Health Team Care Conference, which took place September 15-17, 1988 at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.  It is reproduced here with the permission of the authors.

Most pre-professional education takes place in an environment that is purely disciplinary in orientation. A myriad of factors impact the structuring of academic experiences. Usually the desire to ensure that students receive disciplinary content ultimately takes precedent over broadening interprofessional experiences. The result is that many professionals do not have the benefit of an interprofessional experience and do not see the need for it until they enter the profession. The move toward an interprofessional perspective involves several levels of sophistication including (1) the awareness of the need for interprofessional practice, (2) an understanding of one's own professional limitations and (3) the development of skills and knowledge about what other professions can provide for problem-solving and a facility to develop interprofessional contacts. (Houle, Cyput, Boggs, 1987). At this point they may see the need for the development of an interprofessional perspective and may actively seek collaborative relationships with other professionals through community groups, voluntary agencies, etc. The need to know how to interact in an interdisciplinary fashion may also become a strong continuing education function and professionals may avail themselves of opportunities to have continuing education experiences that involve a diversity of professionals. Thus, while some professionals today are able to practice with the benefit of interprofessional educational experiences, others must rely on interprofessional continuing education to develop skills to practice interprofessionally. There are some reports about the need to act more interprofessionally, but little solid data to assess the impact of interprofessional experiences on the attitudes and actions of professionals (Snyder, 1987). It appears that educational experiences focusing on interprofessional issues can assist later in the practice setting (Spencer, 1987). The impact of continuing education on interprofessional practice has not been researched. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of interprofessional continuing education on interprofessional practice among a group of diverse professions.