Creating an Interprofessional Collaborative Research Opportunity for Physical and Occupational Therapy Students.

Physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) professional associations assert the importance that entry-level therapists learn and apply the knowledge and skills necessary for interprofessional collaborative practice; however, the majority of PT and OT programs do not have the other discipline at their university. A challenge exists for the creation of a transparent active learning opportunity promoting interprofessional student engagement when the two professions do not reside in the same university. This case study provides a model for how to feasibly create an interprofessional experience for students in universities that do not include a complementary or collaborative allied health professional program, using various technologies. While creating this collaborative project, we provided opportunities to meet the Interprofessional Education Collaborative's (IPEC) competencies: a) value/ethics for interprofessional practice, b) roles and responsibilities, c) interprofessional communication, and d) teams and teamwork through participation in a breast cancer survivorship research study. Within this demonstration project, the faculty were able to make "micro level" changes to foster interprofessional collaboration among universities with other allied health profession programs, which may lead to improved health outcomes for our clients.