Interprofessionality can refer both to cooperation in practice (IPP) and to learning together (IPE).
Interprofessional education and learning, as defined by CAIPE, occurs when members or students of two or more professions learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care and services.
Interprofessional practice means that professionals with different profiles, competences, specialisations and fields of activity – including patients and family caregivers – work together to provide complementary, high-quality, and effective care. This goes hand in hand with the efforts of all those involved to harmonise the various disciplines and their approaches. This requires mutual perception, continuous interaction and a permanent exchange. Situation assessments are made together and decisions regarding treatment and aftercare are reached on common ground. Typical problem areas are, for example, communication problems, misunderstandings regarding roles and responsibilities, conflicts due to different ideas about care, but also tensions due to power disparities.
The research on interprofessionality deals with teaching and learning formats, curricula and implementation challenges, the theory -practice gap, interdependencies, outcomes and efficiency.