Why we need to problematise the interprofessional field

Established academic fields such as education and sociology have regularly problematised a range of common place issues.  However, to date, within the interprofessional field there has been little effort to problematise key interprofessional concepts, the interprofessional activities (courses, workshops) that have been produced, or the evaluative approaches employed.  The lack of problematisation within the interprofessional field may be due to its relatively recent arrival as an area of academic inquiry.  Indeed, both interprofessional education and practice are still relatively newcomers as areas of scholarship in comparison with disciplines like sociology or education.  The unproblematised nature of this field may also stem from the fact that so much of what we do interprofessionally is usually undertaken on top of profession-specific responsibilities and workloads.  As a result, one could argue that much of the work which has been undertaken in this field has been done so by interprofessional enthusiasts.  While we clearly need enthusiasts to initiate and (attempt to) sustain a range of interprofessional education and practice activities, arguably, the result is a tendency to accept, at face value, a range of interprofessional concepts and activities, which have now become normalised into our everyday thinking.  This uncritical approach can generate a number of difficulties in our work as we fail to understand the nature of interprofessional phenomena as they are designed, implemented and evaluated.

(Scott Reeves, Editor-in-Chief)

To read more see: The need to problematize interprofessional education and practice activities.
Journal of Interprofessional Care; 24:333-335.