Resource Center

This Discussion Paper aims to provide guidance on IPECP research. We provide a perspective of the current situation and the needs in IPECP research around the globe, make recommendations for research teams to advance IPECP theory-informed research, and invite collaborators to join us in this initiative. The appendix provides a proposed lexicon for the interprofessional field based on the current interprofessional literature. This lexicon serves as a starting point in developing a global consensus on a set of definitions and descriptions related to interprofessional education, learning, practice, and care. In doing so, and in response to the Article 4 of the Sydney Interprofessional Declaration (All Together Better Health V, 2010), IPR.Global and Interprofessional.Global plan to conduct a web-based global Delphi panel in early 2020.

Proposed interprofessional education and collaborative practice research priorities

To meet the challenges discussed above, we propose the following global IPECP research priorities:

1. Building the science and scholarship of IPECP through the discovery and integration of innovative evidence-informed strategies.
2. Identifying and applying innovative approaches that embrace and address the inherent complexity of interprofessional endeavours.
3. Developing evidence of impact along the continuum from interprofessional education to collaborative practice in person- and community-centred service delivery.

Proposed recommendations for research teams

1. We recommend that IPECP research teams include diverse experts from various disciplines, e.g. health, social, education, economic, etc., as well as from the quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method research methodologies.
2. Research teams should strive for the inclusion of learners, service users, community members and civil society as partners (e.g. as informants, data interpreters, knowledge translators) in interprofessional research.
3. Research teams should ensure that studies/projects are underpinned by relevant theories, frameworks and/or models in order to produce meaningful contributions to the body of knowledge in IPECP.