Changing educational paradigms to prepare allied health professionals for the 21st century.
BACKGROUND
Inefficient and ineffective health care delivery has been of recent concern to most stakeholders in the process. Care provision systems will improve when care providers are educated to function as team members and to demonstrate competencies required for practice in diverse, demanding, and ever-changing environments.


OBJECTIVE
In one School of Allied Health Sciences, faculty members from nine departments united to create an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to foster the achievement of common competencies essential for success in the workplace.


METHODS
Members of a Curriculum-2000 Task Force collaborated to: (1) review current literature, (2) articulate a set of common competencies across several disciplines, and (3) produce a proposal for achieving and measuring competencies in an interdisciplinary manner.


CONCLUSIONS
Individuals from various disciplines can come to consensus about competencies that graduates should achieve. Such consensus is the first step in the direction of implementing a curriculum based on interdisciplinary competencies.
Stephenson
Karen S
KS
Department of Physician Assistant Studies, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Texas Medcial Branch, Galveston, 77555-1028, USA. kstephen@utmb.edu
Peloquin
Suzanne M
SM
Richmond
Shirley A
SA
Hinman
Martha R
MR
Christiansen
Charles H
CH