UBC Health has a core mandate to support the development and delivery of interprofessional education at UBC
The Integrated Curriculum is a key part of health programs at UBC, designed to help students build the skills needed for team-based care. This interprofessional education (IPE) program includes a series of workshops and online modules where students from different health disciplines learn together about complex health topics and develop skills for working collaboratively. Through this program, UBC Health is committed to offering interprofessional and patient-engaged education that is meaningful, culturally safe, and tailored to the needs of each region where UBC students receive training.
What is interprofessional education?
Interprofessional education occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. – World Health Organization
Why interprofessional education?
Team-based care is growing across BC, and with it comes a need to support this shift through education, research, and knowledge sharing. Interprofessional education (IPE) helps prepare students throughout their training by building the skills, understanding, and perspectives they need to work effectively in collaborative care settings.
How is the Integrated Curriculum unique?
The Integrated Curriculum is:
- Competency-based: draws on the competencies of the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative National Interprofessional Competency Framework
- Collaborative: developed in collaboration with participating programs, content experts, students, and patient/community members
- Culturally Safe: includes Indigenous cultural safety sessions and a commitment to the integration of Indigenous ways of knowing and learning
- Community-engaged: provides opportunities for students to learn from people with lived and living experience
- Integrated: formally embedded in the training of health professionals at UBC and a mandatory component for each professional program
- Adaptive: continuously evaluated and reassessed to ensure its relevance as practice changes
How is the Integrated Curriculum delivered?
Students take part in interactive workshops and online modules as part of the Integrated Curriculum. Workshops are co-led by facilitators from different health programs, demonstrating how professionals collaborate in real-world settings. Patient facilitators also take part, offering valuable insights and lived experiences for students to learn from. Indigenous cultural safety sessions follow an allyship model and are co-facilitated by an Indigenous facilitator, creating space for meaningful learning and reflection.
The Integrated Curriculum includes workshops and modules on:
- Professionalism
- Ethics
- Indigenous cultural safety
- Health informatics
- Substance use and addiction
- Collaborative decision-making
Partnerships
UBC Health works with the Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health to support the delivery of UBC 23 24 Indigenous cultural safety training as part of the Integrated Curriculum. These modules and workshops help prepare future health professionals to provide culturally safe care and contribute to better health outcomes for Indigenous peoples.
In partnership with the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU), UBC Health also supports improved education around substance use and addiction. A dedicated workshop within the Integrated Curriculum gives students foundational training in prevention, treatment, care, and recovery—equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to better support people who use substances.