The Interprofessional Rural Program of British Columbia (IRPbc).
The Interprofessional Rural Program of British Columbia IRPbc was established in 2003 as an important first step for the Province of British Columbia, Canada, in creating a collaborative interprofessional education initiative that engages numerous communities, health authorities and post-secondary institutions in working toward a common goal. Designed to foster interprofessional education and promote rural recruitment of health professionals, the program places teams of students from a number of health professional programs into rural and remote British Columbia communities. In addition to meeting their discipline specific learning objectives, the student teams are provided with the opportunity to experience the challenges of rural life and practice and advance their interprofessional competence. To date, 62 students have participated in the program from nursing, social work, medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmaceutical sciences, speech language pathology, audiology, laboratory technology, and counseling psychology. While not without numerous struggles and challenges, IRPbc has been successful in meeting the program mandate. It has also had a number of positive outcomes not anticipated at the time the program was established.
Charles
Grant
G
College of Health Disciplines, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. gcharles@interchange.ubc.ca
Bainbridge
Lesley
L
Copeman-Stewart
Kathy
K
Art
Shelley Tiffin
ST
Kassam
Rosemin
R
D001955:British Columbia; D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D017145:Models, Educational; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010558:Personnel Loyalty; D010560:Personnel Selection; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011635:Public Health Administration; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000592:standards; D013336:Students, Health Occupations; D000078329:Workforce