Interprofessional education and practice

Interprofessional education and practice is a feature of ACU’s Faculty of Health Sciences courses.

It involves collaborating across disciplines and schools and engaging with health industry partners, as well as partners in education, disability and aged care. It provides authentic learning experiences for students and high-quality interprofessional services for clients and organisations.

Working together for better outcomes

Interprofessional education (IPE) takes place when people from two or more disciplines learn with, from and about each other to build knowledge and skills that enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes (World Health Organisation, 2010).

IPE may occur in classroom activities, simulated experiences or during professional practice placements, also known as work-integrated learning.

Providing opportunities for students to engage in IPE during their bachelor degree improves their capacities to work together to deliver person-, family- and community- centred practice when they start work (Venville & Andrews, 2019; WHO, 2010).

IPE at ACU

At the core of ACU’s IPE development are the key competencies that enable individuals to engage in interprofessional practice: role understanding, communication, collaborative decision-making and reflexivity. 

Our approach to IPE

We design interprofessional learning experiences in conjunction with professional practice partners to create authentic opportunities for learners to develop these competencies.

Such partnerships enable us to identify and address gaps in service delivery or engage in service expansion or enhancement, guided by industry needs, and for the wellbeing of people and communities.

ACU’s mission underpins all we do. IPE enhances our commitment to contribute to the common good and uphold the dignity of every person.

Partner with us

We work with partners across a number of industries in Victoria, NSW, ACT and Queensland to identify projects and learning experiences that will support our students to learn, and our partners to deliver new and improved services.

Please complete the EOI form below if you would like to partner with us. We look forward to discussing opportunities with you.

When you submit the form, please let us know the population you service, the disciplines/professions within your organisation, the needs you’d like to address and any ideas you’d like to discuss. We will respond to your EOI as soon as we can.

Submit a partnership EOI

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