Effective leadership is a core element of high performing interprofessional teams related to their success and sustainability. In today’s complex health care environment, old models of leadership focused on individual performance, hierarchy and personal characteristics are no longer relevant. They have been replaced with calls for new knowledge and skills focused on creating team-based shared vision, commitment and flexible response to rapid change. 

In the interprofessional environment, leadership preparation requires experiential learning deeply embedded in IPEC® and leadership competence.  To date, there have been minimal guides or resources to help practitioners, preceptors and students to become effective team leaders. 

In this workshop, participants will examine how well-known leadership competencies may be crosswalked with IPEC® competencies and practice ways to operationalize interprofessional leadership competence in student experiences and busy clinical practices.

The workshop experience is based on the lessons of a two-year National Center Accelerating Interprofessional Community-Based Education and Practice Initiative  grant project to integrate leadership experience and competency development in a student-led model of learning and practice providing care to individuals with substance use disorders residing in a residential care facility.  Practice, education, and organizational partners who designed and are implementing the leadership program, including academic faculty, preceptors, and students from multiple professions, insisted that the program be realistic for a fast-paced practice, relevant, and result in student competence and better care for the residents. They also wanted to experiment with new ways of learning involving tools and strategies from outside the traditional health professions. With healthcare professionals translating priorities and realities of healthcare for them, colleagues from the design professions assisted in creating experiential learning activities that merged IPEC®, leadership and mindful awareness of team practice and performance. This workshop offers participants the experience of pivotal insights and tools from this project.

Through engagement in this workshop, participants will:

• Experience the process of crosswalking IPEC® and leadership competencies.
• Create a competency-based experiential learning activity for leadership preparation.
• Explore strategies to build incremental learning activities that prepare students for leading interprofessionally.

Learning Strategies

• Exercise in IPEC®-Leadership Competency Crosswalk.
• Practice competency-based leadership exercises.