The National Collaborative for Improving the Clinical Learning Environment (NCICLE) has identified the key role that leadership and governance plays in ensuring optimal clinical learning environments. This concept is central to our individual and joint institutional collaborations, including administrative and financial support, stakeholder buy-in, clinical leadership, academic and clinical faculty commitment to interprofessional education and practice, and the individual IPI’s ability to effectively engage student learners. As our communities strive to develop new interprofessional learning models, a common struggle is building partnerships with support from executive leadership. Our collaboration has fostered a unique relationship whereby we have capitalized on the strengths of each institution’s leadership to advance development, implementation and assessment of interprofessional activities within our respective Interprofessional Dedicated Education Units (IPDEUs).

This interactive workshop is designed to bring teams together to explore strategies for forging institutional partnerships that can begin at any level, from clinician, to academic, to administrative. As new relationships are formed, teams must work together to identify common leadership strengths, while recognizing the places where differences exist. Teams can then “leverage the leadership” at each institution to bolster each other’s projects, whether it be through the management of clinical processes, identification of best practices, or program evaluation and outcome measurement.

Using interactive polling, small group discussion, and large group debriefing, participants will be able to identify circumstances within their own institutions that may enhance or limit collaboration and growth of interprofessional opportunities, and consider external partnerships that can generate innovative opportunities.  We will explore strategies that have been effective in our efforts to create buy-in, build effective teams, and develop efficient interprofessional clinical experiences.

Learning Objectives: using the MGH/IHP/Pitt/UPMC partnership as a model, learners will be able to:

• Connect with members of academic and clinical interprofessional communities across the country to explore potential partnerships.
• Identify leadership strategies to support development of optimal interprofessional clinical learning environments.
• Identify facilitators and barriers to the development of interprofessional clinical learning environments.
• Assess their own institution’s strengths with regard to developing  interprofessional  clinical learning environments and identify areas where partnerships are needed to bolster effectiveness.