A plan for embedding an interprofessional education initiative into an existing programme in a Southeast Asian university

Abstract

An interprofessional education (IPE) initiative was recently launched at the University of Health Sciences in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a country located in southeast Asia. During the process of reviewing the current curriculum, it was realised that the university has been providing a kind of IPE programme for more than a decade. Medical, pharmacy, dentistry, and nursing students were participating together in a community education programme. After identifying the programme's strengths and challenges, a 4-year plan for embedding the IPE concept into the programme was developed. The plan was divided into four phases-sharing the key concepts of IPE, designing the programme, organising the interprofessional programme committee, and evaluating the effectiveness of the programme. In this short article, we describe the process that led to the plan's creation and the experiences from the first two phases already completed.